Henry Moore Tapestries

Henry Moore, renowned throughout the world for his sculpture and drawings, was one of the few modern artists to extend his work into the realm of tapestry. Working closely with the Tapestry Studio at West Dean, Moore authorized a series of tapestries based on his drawings. The brilliance of the drawings is confirmed in their transition into large tapestries, seven or eight times the size of the original. These lost nothing of their power in the process, retaining all the textural qualities of the drawing, from a smudgy chalk line to a decisive pen stroke. This is the only work to deal exclusively with Moore’s tapestries, and is now available for the first time in paperback. Ann Garrould places the tapestries in the context of Moore’s work, discussing the drawings chosen and the way in which the subjects reflect Moore’s three ‘obsessions’: the mother and child, the reclining human figure and the larger form enclosing the smaller. Valerie Power describes the production of the tapestries, from the dyeing of wools and the interpretation of the drawing in consultation with Henry Moore, to the final weaving process.