«Sculpture, even more than painting (which, generally speaking, is restricted to interiors), is a public art, and for that reason, I am at once involved in the problem of the relation of the artist to the particular form of society which we have at this moment in history. There have been periods which we would like to regard as ideal prototypes of society, in which that relationship was simple. Society had a unified structure, whether communal or hierarchic, and the artist was a member of that society with a definite piace and a definite function. There was a universal faith, and an accepted interplay of authority and function which left the artist with a defined task, and a secure position. Unfortunately, our problems are not simplified in that way. We have a society which is fragmented, authority which resides in no certain place, and our function as artists is what we make it by our individual efforts. We live in a transitional age, between one economie structure of society which is in dissolution and another economy arder of society which has not yet taken definite shape. As artists, we do not know who is our master; we are individuals seeking patronage, sometimes from another individual, sometimes from an organization of individuals - a public corporation, a museum, an educational authority - sometimes from the State itselt. This very diversity of patronage requires, on the part of the modem artist, an adaptability or agility that was not required of the artist in a unified society»

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«The fact that the town planner or the architect can begin without a thought of the artists he is going to employ to embellish his building shows how far away we are from that integral conception of the arts which has been characteristic of all the great epochs in history. Assuming that such co-operation is sought and given from the beginning of an architectural conception, then there are many considerations which the sculptor must bring into play. He will want to consider both external proportions and internal spatial volumes in relation to the size and style of sculpture that might be required - not merely the decorative function of sculpture in relation to formal qualities, but also the possibility of utilitarian functions. Utilitarian is perhaps not the right word, but I am thinking of the didactic and symbolic functions of sculpture in Gothic architecture, inseparable from the architectural conception itself. The sculptor will also want to consider his own rnaterials in relation to those to be employed by the architect, so that he can secure the effective harmony of contrast of textures and colors, of fantasy and utility, of, as one might say, freedom and necessity. These are perhaps obvious rights for a sculptor to claim in the conception and execution of a composite work of art, but nothing is such a symptom of our disunity, of our cultural fragmentation, as this divorce of the arts».

 

Henry Moore from the essay Sculptor in modern society in the catalogue: Henry Moore. Gli ultimi 10 anni / The last 10 years, ed. Skira, 1995.