Bill Brandt and Henry Moore exhibition opens in Norfolk

The show celebrates two of the greatest artists of the 20th century - Bill Brandt and Henry Moore.

Henry Moore by Bill Brandt, on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. (Image: Bill Brandt / Bill Brandt Archive Ltd)

It has almost 200 works, and displays sculpture, drawing and photography, including rare colour transparencies and little-known photo collages.

Bill Brandt/Henry Moore, on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. (Image: Andy Crouch)

First brought together during the Second World War whilst working for the Ministry of Information, Mr Brandt and Mr Moore’s work would go on to interweave many times throughout their careers.

The artists' documentation of civilians sheltering in the London Underground during the Blitz in 1942, through photography and drawing, is a crucial record of the Blitz.

Bill Brandt self-portrait, 1966, on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. (Image: Bill Brandt / Bill Brandt Archive Ltd)

Shelter Sleepers: Two women and a child, 1940, by Henry Moore, on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. (Image: Sainsbury Centre, UEA/Marcus Leith/The Henry Moore Foundation, UK)

Ghislaine Wood, acting director of the Sainsbury Centre, said: “Henry Moore is a crucial artist in our collection, and we are delighted to be able to show his work in a new light through its presentation alongside Bill Brandt, one of the most important photographers of the 20th century.

"This exhibition demonstrates how Henry Moore, often known as a sculptor, worked across media, including collage and photography, and how Brandt — through photography — presented the landscape and body as acutely sculptural.”

Bill Brandt/Henry Moore, on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. (Image: Andy Crouch)

Figures against a background of bombed buildings, by Henry Moore, on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. (Image: The Henry Moore Foundation/The Provost and Scholars of King's College, Cambridge.)

Starting in the wartime years, the show parallels the two artists' response to the British landscape and the era they lived through. The exhibition goes on to explore their more abstract work, which took inspiration from nature, ancient forms such as Stonehenge, and items collected from Sussex beaches.

Both artists used one another's practices within their own, with Brandt using sculpture within photography, and Moore using photography to develop his sculptures. The exhibition’s curator, Martina Droth, explains how "photography and sculpture have long had a close relationship", and how she wanted to break down any boundaries within this.

As well as the exhibition, the Sainsbury Centre Sculpture Park has a permanent selection of Henry Moore’s larger sculptural works to explore.

Tickets are £13. 50% off for under 18s, full-time students and Art Fund members, £12 for concessions and free for Sainsbury Centre Members, UEA and NUA Student Members.

Bill Brandt/Henry Moore is on display at The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts now until March 7 2021.

Henry Moore, by Bill Brandt, on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. (Image: Bill Brandt / Bill Brandt Archive Ltd.)