Bill Brandt and Henry Moore were first brought together by the circumstances of the Second World War, when both supplied the government with images that responded to the urgency of the times. A major new book and exhibition examine the intersecting paths of these two artists during the war and post-war era. In it, Brandt is revealed as a photographer attuned to the vitality of sculpture and the plastic potential of landscape and the body; Moore is shown to be a sculptor, draftsman, and collage artist who made a serious commitment to photography as a creative medium. Both artists were deeply engaged with the materiality of their media, seeking depth and dimensionality even in the seemingly flat surfaces of paper.
Front cover of Picture Post that reads ‘Where Stands Britain’ with a photo of stonehengeIn this talk, curator Martina Droth and photograph-conservator Paul Messier explore the ways in which the distinctive expressive goals of Bill Brandt and Henry Moore came together through the mechanical reproducibility of photography. Going behind the scenes of their project, they discuss the objectives and challenges involved in creating a book that captures the material nuances of sculpture and photography side by side.
Martina Droth and Paul Messier are the editors of Bill Brandt | Henry Moore, published by the Yale Center for British Art. The book accompanies the exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield (7 February–3 May, 2020), the Yale Center for British Art (25 June–13 September, 2020) and the Sainsbury Centre (22 November, 2020–28 February, 2021).