Henry Moore was born in July 1898 in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England as the seventh of eight children. As a youth, he held an interest in medieval sculpture and began sculpting in clay and carving wood. After serving in World War I, Moore used his ex-serviceman's grant to become the first student of sculpture at the Leeds College of Art and Design. He then won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in London, where he extended his knowledge of primitive art and sculpture, studying the ethnographic collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum.

Moore is best known form his abstract monumental bronze sculptures, located around the world as public works of art. His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Though highly stylized, Moore's works often suggest the female body. He became well known for his larger-scale abstract cast bronze and carved marble sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the United Kingdom. In 1932, Moore took up a post as the Head of the Department of Sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art, and became a member of The Seven and Five Society.  This group would develop steadily more abstract work, partly influenced by their frequent trips to Paris and contact with leading progressive artists, notably Pablo Picasso, George Braque, Jean Arp, and Alberto Giacometti. In 1946, Moore made his first visit to America when a retrospective exhibition of his work opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Later in 1948, Moore won the International Sculpture Prize at the Venice Biennale and was one of the featured artists of the Festival of Britain in 1951 and Documenta 1 in 1955.

The last three decades of Moore's life continued in a similar way with several major retrospectives taking place around the world, notably a very prominent exhibition in the summer of 1972 on the grounds of the Forte di Belvedere overlooking Florence. By the end of the 1970s, there were about forty exhibitions a year featuring his work. Moore died in August of 1986 in his home in Hertfordshire and is survived by his wife Irina and daughter Mary. 

Large Totem Head, c. 1968
Bronze
Gift on Philip and Muriel Berman and Nancy Berman Bloch
Asa Packer Campus: Zoellner Arts Center

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