MICHELANGELO AND MOORE
Sta,—A careful reader of the sentence which has upset Mr. Cooper will find that I was referring, not to poetry nor to architecture nor yet to textile design, but to Mr. Henry Moore's new group at Battersea Park. Michelangelo, of course, considered himself a sculptor before everything, and between his use of the human figure to express ideas about humanity in general, and that of Henry Moore, there are clear affinities. Both artists have created a race of men and women who do not belong to this world, but exist in the more rarified atmosphere of abstract and subjective thought. Both have grappled with the tragedy of existence, and have felt the hopelessness of mankind's struggle against an inexorable fate. Michelangelo, living in an heroic age, cast his ideas into an heroic and rhetorical mould. Moore, reflecting the confusion of our times, is more ambiguous and disquieting. Behind the grandeur and nobility of both, one senses an endeavour to break the barriers of a medium too small to contain all that they have to say.
A comparison of relative stature was not my purpose. I cannot help feeling, however, ,that the caution of Mr. Cooper's final sentence is as exaggerated in its negative way as any more positive statement could be,
I am glad to see that another critic has found this group "the greatest single work in sculpture or painting to be accomplished by an English artist in the present century." It is refreshing to find any contemporary artist being given an opportunity to work on a scale commensurate with his powers.—Yours, &c., M. H. MIDDLETON. 39 Thurloe Square, South Kensington, S.W.7.
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