HENRY MOORE EXHIBITION

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28132, 22 November 1956, Page 16

HENRY MOORE EXHIBITION

“ It’s Grotesque; It’s Perverted ” COMMENT BY VIEWER

“Well, I know this: if I had been in Auckland I would have voted for Mr Lux f ord.” This was one person’s comment on the Henry Moore exhibition which was opened for the public yesterday. When the exhibition was in Auckland, the former Mayor (Mr J. H. Luxford) criticised the works adversely.

Another member of a group of three asked by a reporter from “The Press” for their comments on the exhibition said the group was desperately looking for something that might be worthwhile.

“That draped reclining figure is rather better.” said one. “Yes, because it’s getting closer to the normal.” said another. “We’re trying very hard to see something we like. The sculpture is better than the drawing. But as for comment—it’s grotesque. it’s perverted.”

“I can’t make head or tail of that one: he must have a weird sort of mind,” a woman said. The opposite view was expressed by another woman: “I see nothing to jeer at: it’s simply that people are not up to date.’’ The attendance at the exhibition yesterday afternoon was small. There were not more than 25 persons in the room at one time, and they spent about half an hour there each. In the main they were women, but half a dozen men looked in and moved dubiously from exhibit to exhibit.

The exhibition will close in Christchurch on December 10 and move to Dunedin, where it will open on January 14. The work of packing and transporting the exhibits is difficult—there are 47 cases, at least two of which take eight men to lift—and the operation takes several days. The Internal Affairs Department has contributed £250 towards the cost of transport within New Zealand.

Henry Moore has forbidden the taking of close-up photographs of the exhibits by persons because he wishes them to be viewed only in certain patterns of light and shade, which are contained in approved photographs accompany ing the exhibition.