Henry Moore, Tate Trustee, Insulted Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture And Promoted His Own

Henry Moore was a canny and vicious manipulator of the Tate, a former director’s diary reveals: “In 1945, the Tate’s board was considering whether to purchase a wooden sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. Moore, then a gallery trustee, interjected with the damning words: ‘If sculpture [was] nothing more than that, it would be a poor affair.’ The ploy worked. The Hepworth was rejected by the board, while every one of seven sculptures the Tate bought that year was by none other than Henry Moore.”