London Le Cool

We’ve been getting some great media coverage for our free interactive sculpture tour. If you don’t believe me you can check the Time Out listings.  BUT, what we are even more excited about than being in Time Out is being featured on Le Cool London. Le Cool is the effortless organiser, the trendy insider; your friend in the know and they know a good time. That’s why it is particularly flattering that they should choose to feature our audio tour. Thanks a million guys!

You should also check out Cherry Sorbet, home of the lovely Jo who wrote the Moore Outside feature.

Splendid Entrants

Musician by Vasyl Dzhabraylov

Sans Titre by Simon Fuek

Timeline by Sue Tarbitten

As regular readers will already know, Moore Outside is running a competition of creativity. We’ve had lots of wonderful and talented artists submit their work to be judged and I’ll continue to post the most exciting submissions up here. For now, here is just a little taste of things to come…

From the Desk of Mr. Deedham

Now I hope you’ve been enjoying our Quote of the Day (which we do try to keep on top of!) and if you have then you’ll surely like this. Mr. Deedham has kindly allowed me access to his personal musings on Moore. I will be periodically uploading passages from his archive that I find particularly interesting on this blog.

The intense vitality is what first struck me, something immediate, something carnal. The man carves stone like no other Englishman I am yet to encounter. These askance figures are uncompromising – they are indifferent and seem to hold no concern as to beauty whatever. They are not ‘pretty’ in the classical sense; far from it. They sit on display like columns of mud; strong, supportive. And yet there is beauty there. Such as there is in a still forest pool in the dim dawn or more still in a shoulder of lamb…

For such manageable beasts they seem quite immovable, finite; carved from the memory of an evolutionary past. The motifs are common but do not drudge in the annuls – the damp corridors of the history of Art. In fact for some reason that quite perturbs me; they don’t seem quite like Art at all. Instead Moore has fabricated something truthful and mythic. Something… eternal; modern day relics not from Patagonia but, strangely, Yorkshire.

Oh so Moore-ish

Sculpture on the Perry Green Grounds

It’s a carnival of creativity and you, yes you are personally invited. At Moore outside as you may have guessed we are big HUGE fans of Henry Moore and we hope that you are too. We want you to grease the creative cogs, soften the creative clay, sharpen the creative crayons and catch the creative crayfish. Essentially we want to see what you can make.

From sketches, drawings and sculptures to poems, paintings and free-form be-bop. If you feel inspired by Moore then we want to know about it. I’m going to start posting the entrants up here on the blog for all to see and if your work makes it up then you could be in with a chance on getting a golden ticket to come with us on a very special trip to a once in a lifetime birthday celebration at Henry Moore’s former home and studio – Perry Green.

To enter you can post your pictures or texts as comments on this blog or alternatively email them to me – poppy@jdcollections.co.uk and I’ll post them up for you. Look forward to seeing what you make!

Best. P.x

Great Art is not Perfect

Rondanini Pietà, Michelangelo

I personally believe that all life is a conflict; that’s something to be accepted, something you have to know. And you have to die, too, which is the opposite of living. One must try to find a synthesis, to come to terms with opposite qualities. Art and life are made up of conflicts.

I think really that in great art, i.e. in the art I find great, this conflict is hidden, it is unsolved. Great at is not perfect. Take the Rondanini Pietà, one of the greatest works of Michelangelo. It is not a perfect work of art. There is a huge arm remaining from the earlier statue which was later changed into the Pietà. It has nothing to do with the composition. Nevertheless, it was left there.

Henry Moore.

Moore at The BBC

Two stalwarts of Great British Greatness – Henry Moore and the British Broadcasting Company. The two worked together a surprising number of times and thanks to the Henry Moore exhibition at Tate Britain, This rich content (including what many regard as the first every Artist Documentary) has been digitised and brought into our lives again. You can view it all in Tate Britain right now and the footage is set to proliferate across many more UK galleries in the coming years. Click the BBC Blog for full details of what has been a tough project to pull off but one that should be saluted. Our country’s really quite good when you think about it!

Best, P.x

Battersea Bastille

Tricolores at the ready because this Sunday 11th July, is Bastille Day and I’m excited because it is a great excuse for some fun outdoors at a Garden Party in Battersea Park!! Last year was great, sipping wine and scoffing cheese in the fabulous greenery. This year sees food, wine, dancing girls, french films and celebrity chef Raymond Blanc – there’s simply no better way to celebrate the French Revolution in SW11

While you’re there you could visit Three Standing Figures – click for the adventure mp3 and map.

“The creative habit is like a drug. The particular obsession changes, but the excitement, the thrill of your creation lasts.”

Henry Moore.  Artists in Quotation, Donna Ward La Cour. 1989

Test Sites’ Last Days

Breathing Room III by Anthony Gormley, Photo - Ben Westoby

You only have four days left to get yourself to the White Cube in Piccadilly to see the Fantastic Test Sites by Antony Gormley. The sculptor rushed to the fore-front of the nation’s consciousness after his hugely publicised One and Other on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square. Whether you thought the 4th plinth was an attention seeking, awkward X-factor for the middle classes and that the plinth was better when it was empty doesn’t matter any more because the space-age subtlety of Gormley’s eerie, phosphorescent grid is something else entirely. Fantastic.

Ideas From Old Bones

Henry Moore by Allan Warren

Calling all Sculptors.

We’re looking for talent and we’ve got a sneaking suspicion you’ve got some. Whether you’re a Brancusi or a Beginner we want you to get involved in our celebration of sculpture.

Henry Moore drew great inspiration from the world around him. Not from the monumental but from the often over-looked – broken pieces of bone, driftwood, fragments of rocks and pebbles worn smooth – things borne of The Earth and modeled by her ineffable force. Moore found great beauty and significance in these natural forms. He would carry them with him in the pockets of his jacket. Touching and holding them, understanding their shape and scale. Grasping their concealed meaning. Many of his most iconic pieces owe their form to this natural detritus that The Earth had worn smooth. Locking Piece, just east of Vauxhall Bridge on Millbank (a stone’s throw from Tate Britain) and further North along The Thames,  Knife Edge Two Piece (which sits proudly in the suitably grand surrounds of Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and The Houses of Parliament) both took their form from objects Moore had found.

If, however, you are feeling creative and looking at spectacular modernist sculptures just isn’t enough for you JD Collections wants to see what you can make. We’re looking for the best Sculptors in London to submit their Moore inspired entries to our Competition. These can be made from objects you’ve found or they can be pieces you’ve made in their entirety. All we would ask is that they are small enough to be easily held and that you would be happy to exhibit them. Our favourite entries will be proudly displayed at a special event. If you enter you will also be eligible to attend a once in a lifetime event at Henry Moore’s Perry Green studio in Hertfordshire.

To enter, simply send us a picture of your sculpture. You can either:

• Post a photograph in a comment on this post
• Post a link to your Flickr/Website
• Or  Email poppy@jdcollections.co.uk

Best, P.x