Abstraction Quote by Henry Moore

“All art is an abstraction to some degree.”

Henry Moore

About This Quote

Source Essay: Art and Abstraction, 1970

Art always simplifies reality, focusing on essential forms rather than exact details.

In simple terms: Art simplifies reality.

Key Takeaway

Embrace abstraction in creative work.

Themes

creativity perception interpretation

Mood

thoughtful analytical

Type

philosophical inspirational

When to use this quote

painting
sculpture
design
teaching
critique

Key Concepts

aesthetics symbolism visual language

Questions to Reflect On

How does simplification affect understanding?
When is detail essential?

A Different Perspective

Abstraction may obscure important context for some audiences.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 3.9 out of 5 (7 ratings)

More by Henry Moore

Now I really make the little idea from clay, and I hold it in my hand. I can turn it, look at it from…

Henry Moore

Image

The first hole made through a piece of stone is a revelation.

Henry Moore

Image

One never knows what each day is going to bring. The important thing is to be open and ready for it.

Henry Moore

Image

Recently I have been working in the country, where, carving in the open air, I find sculpture more natural than in a London studio,…

Henry Moore

Image

There is a right physical size for every idea.

Henry Moore

Image

The construction of the human figure, its tremendous variety of balance, of size, of rhythm, all those things make the human form much more…

Henry Moore

Image

I believe that nothing should be taboo - no theory or prejudice should close one's mind to a discovery.

Henry Moore

Image

So with the young African artists. What they have to learn from tribal art is not how to copy the traditional forms, but the…

Henry Moore

Image

The hole connects one side to the other, making it immediately more three-dimensional. A hole can itself have as much shape-meaning as a solid…

Henry Moore

Image

If I set out to sculpt a standing man and it becomes a lying woman, I know I am making art.

Henry Moore

Image

I have always been very interested in landscape... I find that all natural forms are a source of unending interest - tree trunks, the…

Henry Moore

Image

I find in all the artists that I admire most a disturbing element, a distortion, giving evidence of a struggle . . . .…

Henry Moore

Image

Explore all 83 Henry Moore quotes

More Abstraction quotes

Everything in dancing is style, allusion, the essence of many thoughts and feelings. The abstraction of many moments.

Alvin Ailey

Image

The premises from which we begin are not arbitrary ones, not dogmas, but real premises from which abstraction can only be made in the…

Melchor Lim

Image

Two elements are needed to form a truth - a fact and an abstraction

Remy de Gourmont

Image

But we must not underestimate the potency of the mathematical process of abstraction. A surprising variety of things happen to have both magnitude and…

Banesh Hoffmann

Image

Sometimes I start in a very realistic fashion, and as I go on from one painting to another of the same kind, it becomes…

Georgia O'Keeffe

Image

I like residing in abstraction.

Sufjan Stevens

Image

Cancer begins and ends with people. In the midst of scientific abstraction, it is sometimes possible to forget this one basic fact. Doctors treat…

June Goodfield

Image

Yes, there was an element of abstraction and unreality in misfortune. But when an abstraction starts to kill you, you have to get to…

Albert Camus

Image

Computer Science is a science of abstraction -creating the right model for a problem and devising the appropriate mechanizable techniques to solve it.

Alfred Aho