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The first major monograph on sculptor Ronald Moody, exploring his legacy and impact through his key artistic relationships, networks and influences, and his relationship with nature, humanity and spirituality. Jamaican-born sculptor Ronald Moody is one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, yet until now there has been no comprehensive monograph on his work. Coinciding with a major retrospective at The Hepworth Wakefield in summer 2024, this biography moves beyond the dominant narrative, which grounds Moody as forgotten, invisible and marginalized. Instead, it contemplates Moody through a lens that explores the development of his art practice, contributions, impact and value to the landscape of British and international art history. It reproduces scores of Moody works, from largescale figurative sculptures made in wood in the 1930s through to post-war experimentation with concrete and resin casting. These pieces are set within the context of his contemporaries Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, artists he exhibited alongside such as his friend Jacob Epstein, and the group known as the Caribbean Artists Movement, of which Moody was a founding member. Ronald Moody also includes the artist''s broader creative endeavours such as poetry, writings and broadcasts that he turned to at the advent of the Second World War, in which he discusses his artistic influences.
Info autore
Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski is a Ronald Moody specialist. She is the co-editor and contributing author of Mirror Reflecting Darkly: The Rita Keegan Archive; contributing author of Archiving Caribbean Identity: Records, Community, and Memory; and contributing co-author of Communities, Archives and New Collaborative Practices. Eleanor Clayton is Senior Curator at The Hepworth Wakefield, and the author of several books, including Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life, also published by Thames & Hudson.
Riassunto
The first major monograph on sculptor Ronald Moody, exploring his legacy and impact through his key artistic relationships, networks and influences, and his relationship with nature, humanity and spirituality.
Ronald Moody (1900–1984) was a leading modernist sculptor and yet, until now, there has been no comprehensive overview of his work. This biography explores the development of his sculpture, re-establishing his place within the story of 20th-century art.
Contributions by those who knew him – Paul Dash, David A. Bailey, Cynthia Moody, Errol Lloyd and Val Wilmer – punctuate Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski’s biographical account. Their personal reflections and photographs, and transcripts of Moody’s BBC radio broadcasts, offer insights into his cultural influences and studio life, with his brother Harold, a campaigner for racial equality, and the Caribbean Artist Movement, at the core.
Born in Jamaica, Moody arrived in Britain in 1923 and initially trained as a dentist, before switching paths to become an artist, establishing studios in London and Paris. In 1939, six of his works were shown alongside African American artists in a large survey exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art. By 1941 he had produced some forty known sculptures in bronze and wood, and was regularly exhibiting internationally. On the lead up to the Second World War his creative and cultural life was flourishing. Immersed in the art world, he formed friendships with journalists, actors and artists including Marie Seton, Wifredo Lam and Man Ray, until forced to flee the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940.
Back in London, he continued to work and exhibit for nearly half a century, accepting the prestigious Gold Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica for his eminence as an international sculptor in 1977. Receiving little recognition in Britain during his lifetime, however, cultural institutions are now rightfully acquiring and celebrating Ronald Moody’s work.
Prefazione
The first major monograph on sculptor Ronald Moody, exploring his legacy and impact through his key artistic relationships, networks and influences, and his relationship with nature, humanity and spirituality
