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All art should have a certain mystery and should make demands on the spectator. Giving a sculpture or a drawing too explicit a title takes away part of that mystery so that the spectator moves on to the next object, making no effort to ponder the meaning of what he has just seen. Everyone thinks that he or she looks but they don't really, you know.

— Henry Moore

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Notes from Wikiquote

Henry Moore is quoted here by Mary Moore, the artist's niece

More quotes by Henry Moore

The creative habit is like a drug. The particular obsession changes, but the excitement, the thrill of your creation lasts.

The observation of nature is part of an artist's life, it enlarges his form-knowledge, keeps him fresh and from working only by formula, and feeds inspiration

‎Sir Herbert Edward Read, ‎David Sylvester (1957)

The Negroes.. ..their unique claim for admiration is their power to produce form completely in the round.. .Negro sculpture is completely in the round, fully-conceived air-surrounded form.

What is a cave? A cave is a shape. It’s not the lump of mountain over it.

My sculpture is becoming less representational, less an outward visual copy, and so what some people would call more abstract; but only because I believe in that in this way I can present the human psychological content of my work with the greatest directness and intensity.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Henry Moore (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.