Essay by Julianne Medel, Class of 2009

Henry Moore helped usher in modernist sculpture. He was born in 1898, allowing him to fully witness twentieth-century effects of globalization and war on western art before his death in 1986. After discovering non-western sculpture in the late 1920s, the famous British sculptor veered away from traditional sculpting practices. Helmet Head (1963) elegantly illustrates why Moore was at the forefront of modernism. It is one of six editions in a series that explores concepts of layers of exposure and protection.

Moore created abstracted human forms, often focusing on women with their children. Helmet Head is made of bronze with green patina and gold surface bronze. Moore described his inspiration for the series: "I think it may be the interest I had early on in armour, in places like the Victoria and Albert Museum where one used to wander round as a student in the lunch hours. And it may be that I remembered reading stories that impressed me and Wyndham Lewis talking about the shell of lobster covering the soft flesh inside. This became an established idea with me—that of an outer protection to an inner form, and it may have something to do with the mother and child idea; that is where there is the relation of the big thing to the little thing, and the protection idea. The helmet is a kind of protection thing, too, and it became a recording of things inside other things. The mystery of semi-obscurity where one can only half distinguish something. In the helmet you do not quite know what is inside" (Moore Christian Science Monitor, quoted on the Henry Moore Foundation Website).

These were not the first works in which Moore explored the idea of an inner and outer form. When examining his sculptures and drawings, this concept can be traced to 1940, but not explored again until 1948-50. In 1950, he created his first series of Helmet Heads which resemble armor-like shapes, "evoking memories of the Second World War, in which soldiers and civilians alike used protective helmets and masks.as the outbreak of hostilities in Korea threatened to escalate into a wider international conflict and may reflect Moore's anxieties over the threat of nuclear war" (Tate Modern Website). The issue of protection in times of war complements his earlier theme of mothers protecting their children. In the 1960s, Moore returned to the Helmet Head series with rounder, more organic forms such as Augustana's example, which reward the curious viewer, upon closer examination, with a glimpse of the object within.