Henry Moore Textiles

Widely hailed as a revelation and as a beautiful creation in its own right when first published in hardback, "Henry Moore Textiles" is now available in a handsome paperback edition to coincide with ongoing exhibitions of Moore's work. Moore's numerous designs for textiles, only a few of which reached production, have until recently remained virtually unknown. Yet these compositions reveal many illuminating aspects of his work and are intricately connected to his aims, particularly as a Socialist who believed that art could function as an intrinsic part of daily life, stimulating a new approach to living through contemporary design and materials. Motifs such as barbed wire or twisted safety pins give his designs a distinctive hard edge, while enigmatic motifs such as clock hands harken back to Moore's pre-war experiments that mediate between the camps of the Surrealists and Expressionists. Vibrant and sometimes dizzyingly intertwining streaks of colour anticipate the gestural freedom of Abstract Expressionism, and question the pre-conceived notion that Moore was somehow divorced in his aesthetic pursuits from his contemporaries in the avant-garde. Moore once said that colour for him was 'a bit of a holiday', and his work in textiles gave him unrestrained freedom within which to experiment in this sphere. This book surveys and interprets Moore's fabrics, printed in numerous colourways, for scarves, dress and upholstery fabrics as well as large-scale wall panels. Also illustrated are nineteen designs for textiles discovered as recently as 2006, alongside many others reproduced in their true and vibrant colours as never before. It is hoped that the publication will foster a hitherto neglected aspect of the artist's work and encourage others to bring to light further designs and colourways.