Henry Moore @ the Tate

At Tate Britain, Year Six explored different aspects of World War II through Henry Moore's war art.

 



Children's fasination at a variety of artworks.



The children use one of Moore's sculptures to inspire them to sketch.

We took part in the Tate activity of creating paper sculptures
and made sculpture villages.

Year Six Red creating sculptures with
their bodies to match their sculpture.

We looked at the many different medias that
Henry Moore used for his sculptures.

 

Every crumb counts

What do the images in this picture tell you about rationing during the war?

Underground art

Henry Moore is very famous for his sculptures, but he also made sketches in the London Underground during World War II, when the tube stations were used as bomb shelters. He achieve the spooky effect of the figures rising out of the darkness, by using wax crayons and watercolour paint!

Moore said: “I hit upon this technique by accident, sometime before the war when doing a drawing to amuse a young niece of mine. I used some of the cheap wax crayons (which she had bought from Woolworth’s) in combination with a wash of water-colour, and found, of course, that the water-colour did not ‘take’ on the wax, but only on the background. I found also that if you use a light-coloured or even white wax crayon, then a dark depth of background can easily be produced by painting with dark water-colour over the whole sheet of paper.”

Can you see where Moore has used light-coloured crayon and dark watercolours to create the ghostly figure of Woman Seated in the Underground? The ink flows over the wax and soaks into the paper around it, leaving the light colours behind. Why not try it yourself?

Shelter Scene: Bunks and Sleepers, 1941

Woman Seated in the Underground, 1941

Rationing during WW2