Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life
Hepworth Wakefield, 22 June – 3 November 2024
This retrospective exhibition of the work of Ronald Moody, the Jamaican-born British sculptor (1901–1984), is a revelation as there has never been such a comprehensive showing of his work, numbering some fifty pieces of sculpture. Pre-war exhibitions in Paris, Amsterdam and New York featured modest numbers of works by comparison. One reason for this was debilitating illness; Moody contracted pleurisy escaping the Nazis in a daring months-long trek from Paris (where he’d been living for some years) across France into Spain.
Once back in London, it took Moody a long time to acquire a studio and it was also very difficult in the post-war years to acquire wood suitable for large-scale carving. Thus there were fewer works on the same monumental scale that suited his vision – compensated somewhat by his creation of numerous smaller pieces. The scarcity of wood forced him to experiment with other mediums and explore more modern themes, whilst resin casting allowed him to create large-scale bird figures typical of pre-Columbian Carib mythology. One example is a large aluminium cast of a mythical Carib bird, Savacou, which stands in the grounds of the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica.
The Hepworth Wakefield exhibition has populated several of its impressive galleries with examples of these sculptures, highlighting the various phases of his output, set within the context of his contemporaries, such as Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Edna Manley and Jacob Epstein, with some of their work on display, and also incorporating works by members of the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) to which Moody belonged – namely Althea McNish, Aubrey Williams, Errol Lloyd and Paul Dash. Moody’s works are displayed to great advantage and organised in such a way that there is an easy unfolding narrative from entry to the exhibition, with its display of archival material outlining his journey from his native Jamaica as a young man to his burgeoning years as a sculptor in England.
The guest curator of the exhibition, Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, was particularly keen to highlight his CAM membership as her research showed that the organisation had played a critical part in resurrecting Moody’s career at a time when wood carving had gone out of fashion. Consequently, tributes are paid to CAM founders John La Rose, Kamau Brathwaite and Andrew Salkey by featuring their portrait sketches, as well as references to them in the body of the catalogue – though ‘catalogue’ may be an inadequate description of the impressive 256-page book, generously illustrated and published by leading art book publisher Thames and Hudson. For those who can’t attend the exhibition, the hardcover book/monograph is highly recommended, featuring as it does contributions by those who knew him, including Paul Dash, David A. Bailey, Cynthia Moody and Val Wilmer, with a detailed biographical account by Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski and supported by over 100 photographs of sculpture and related archival material.
Errol Lloyd
Exhibition information: https://hepworthwakefield.org/whats-on/ronald-moody-sculpting-life/
Book information: Ronald Moody – Sculpting Life by Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski (Thames &Hudson, ISBN 978-0-500-02703-5), £30.00. Apart from ordering from the publisher directly, the book is presently available from Tate Modern, Waterstones, John Sandoe and Daunt’s Marylebone High Street.
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