Sculptor's work weaves into Figge exhibit

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By David Burke | Wednesday, April 09, 2008 |

An English tapestry that will be on display at the Figge in Davenport (Larry Fisher/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

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Tapestries made from the work of noted sculptor Henry Moore will be on disp…
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The thin, delicate threads of wool and cotton in the Figge Art Museum’s new exhibit of tapestries are a far cry from hulking bronze outdoor sculptures.

Yet they have the same artist in common: British sculptor Henry Moore.

“Mother and Child,” a collection of eight of Moore’s drawings that were turned into tapestries, opens Saturday at the Figge in downtown Davenport and continues through mid-January.

The exhibit is the first time the tapestries have been shown in the United States and the first time in at least a quarter-century that they have been on display anywhere.

“It’s a whole new take on Henry Moore,” Figge executive director Sean O’Harrow said. “Henry Moore is known to everyone as a sculptor — probably the most important sculptor of the 20th century — and this is really about his drawings and tapestries on that work.”

Drawings that Moore had done in the 1940s were commissioned to be turned into tapestries during the late ‘70s, O’Harrow said. Each had two weavers completing the tapestries — which are mostly 6 feet wide and 8 feet long — in a process that took about five years to finish.

O’Harrow, whose last job was working as development director of St. Catherine’s College at the University of Cambridge in England, knew Moore’s daughter, Mary, and was able to secure the showing at the Figge.

O’Harrow said he was amazed by the precision the weavers took in re-creating every speck of the original work.

“You could see they had to work with smudge marks and stains the artists put in. They had to duplicate that in the tapestry,” he said. “All the splotches and all the markings had to be reproduced.”

The exhibit will coincide with a display of Moore’s bronze works at the New York Botanical Garden.

“His sculptures are really about outdoor exhibition, and in the Quad-Cities we don’t have that opportunity,” O’Harrow said.

Although a Moore work is on display at the Deere & Co. Administrative Center in Moline, O’Harrow said the tapestry exhibit will fill a void in the Midwest since Moore’s other works are about six hours’ driving time from each other.

“If you would place us in that line, it would complete that trail, as it were,” O’Harrow said. “We’re nicely positioned between Fairfield, Wis., which has a fine arts center full of Henry Moore, and the Nelson-Atkins (Museum) in Kansas City.”

The best way to hang the tapestries is by Velcro, he said. There will be a guardrail to keep visitors from getting too close and touching the work, but they still will be able to see its detail, he added.

Physically getting the tapestries to the Quad-Cities was a task as well, he said.

Each piece was rolled up and placed in a large metal crate. O’Harrow escorted two of the crates on a flight from Geneva, Switzerland, where he had to give a full inspection before, and then after, the flight.

For art fans, seeing Moore’s work in a different medium is a treat, said Margaret Babbitt, the interim marketing director of the Figge.

“It’s surprising how much volume you see in the tapestries,” she said. “By using the texture and a slight bit of color, there’s a similarity to the outdoor work.

“It’s really just a special treat to be able to see these.”

Mary Moore will visit the Figge later this year to discuss her father’s work, O’Harrow said.

The exhibit originally was scheduled to run for two months, but it was expanded to continue for about nine months.

That way, O’Harrow said, schools in the area can use Moore and other British sculptors in their curriculums before visiting the exhibit.

“It’s such an amazing opportunity for people to see something like this,” he added.

O’Harrow said the Moore work is probably the most significant the museum has hosted since its 2005 opening.

“We’re a small museum, quite regionally focused,” he said. “So to get something of international focus is really important, not only for the Quad-City audience but for visitors.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.