by In the summer of 1938, sculptor Ronald Moody could be forgiven for thinking his career path was set. He exhibited alongside Jacob Epstein, Elisabeth Frink, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, and his work was well reviewed on both sides of the Atlantic. He moved from London to Paris, where he married and began to move among a community of artist friends that included Man Ray and Wifredo Lam. Describing the productive atmosphere of the city at that time he recalled that it was “very much like Champagne, and yet a place where the artist can find peace and time for reflection”.
Of course, the cataclysm of the second world war soon put an end to this idyll, and it greatly changed what Moody did and how he viewed it. While continuing to sculpt, he became a broadcaster, poet, teacher, organizer, mentor and much more.
“It has taken this long, and for the world to be what it is today, to allow us to understand and accept it as a whole,” says Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, author of a new book, Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life (Thames & Hudson ), and co-curator, at Hepworth Wakefield, of the first major show dedicated to his work. It brings together the art of Moody and his contemporaries together with archival material, and sheds new light on a diverse life and career.
“It’s just over 100 years since Moody came to Britain from Jamaica and 40 years since he died,” she continues. “So it feels like it’s a good time to examine what he put before the board. The label of pioneer of 1930s modernism is true, but he lived on for a long time after that and everything else he did is also relevant in terms of looking at his work, as well as the impact he had on the world around him on him.”
Moody was born in Jamaica, in 1900, into a wealthy professional family with strong links to law and medicine. If he had any early artistic ambitions they were not encouraged, and when he traveled to London in 1923 it was to study dentistry, not art. But after a chance visit to the Egyptian rooms at the British Museum, Moody began sculpting – initially using plaster of Paris left over from surgery – and over time his focus changed. “It’s not that his medical background was wasted,” says Ahaiwe Sowinski. “His understanding of physiology informed his sculpture and was a great help in keeping his records excellent for those of us years later who wanted to learn about his work.”
Moody’s activities in the 1930s were international, involving Harlem Renaissance artists in the US as well as leading artists in the UK and Paris. His traumatic escape from the Nazis – a long and dangerous journey of 16 months through Marseille and finally over the Pyrenees – had a lasting effect on his health.
Back in London, he began broadcasting to Britain and abroad on the BBC radio series Calling the West Indies before embarking on the extremely diverse range of activities he carried on until the end of his life, with this includes involvement with the newly formed Caribbean Artists Movement, as well as working in mainstream British culture, such as the bust of comedian Terry-Thomas, a family friend whose wife worked for him for many years.
“And there was so much unsung work behind the scenes supporting artists and exhibitions and organizations and so on,” says Ahaiwe Sowinski. “Certain artists only make art, but Moody was also an ambassador and that’s part of his legacy – you can trace the importance of that work to many artists today. It allows us to build new connections and while this show is a retrospective of his work, it is also an invitation to new scholarship and a new understanding of his achievements. I hope it’s a summary and a start.”
In the Moody: four works from the Hepworth show
Savacou, 1964
Commissioned for the epidemiological research unit at the University of the West Indies, Moody described this sculpture as an “abstract parrot form” of Caribbean origin. The design was later used as the colophon logo for the magazine of the Caribbean Artists Movement.
John, 1936
Although Moody went on to work with a wide range of materials, he was best known for his work with wood. This remarkable early carving was sculpted from an elm trunk given to him by his wife, Helene.
Man … A Universe, 1969
A later work made of glass resin that depicts the duality of humanity by depicting the head of Janus surrounded by a hybrid mythical creature with the foot of a lion, the body of a snake and the head of a bird.
Real Marseille, 1940-43
Moody carved this tiny 11cm figure when he returned to the UK after escaping from France. It is made from a piece of mahogany that other refugees in Marseille gave him as a Christmas present and he carried it with him as a kind of talisman for the rest of his life.
Ronald Moody: A Life of Sculpture at the Hepworth Wakefield to November 3. Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life by Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski is published by Thames & Hudson (£30).
