The Hepworth Wakefield in England, the United Kingdom is currently presenting Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life, the first major retrospective exhibition featuring the Jamaican-British sculptor (1900 - 1984) in the United Kingdom. The show comes four decades after Moody’s passing and extends from June 22 - November 3, 2024. It brings together over 50 artworks created over the artist’s career, from figurative wood carving work in the 1930s to his more experimental works constructed from concrete and resin in the post-World War II period. The exhibition is co-curated by guest curator Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, who is a mixed media artist and archivist, and curator Eleanor Clayton, Head of Collection and Exhibitions, The Hepworth Wakefield. Sowinski, an expert on Moody, joins STIR to discuss the exhibition and Moody’s impact on Black Art and English art history.

Sowinski tells STIR that The Hepworth’s exhibition aims to inspire those who are familiar with Moody’s work while serving as an accessible primer for those who are encountering his work for the first time. Central to the presentation is an expression of Moody’s extensive involvement with other artists, as well as activists who paved the way for peoples of African descent in England and beyond. In her words, “Moody is presented as a complex networked figure and artistic practitioner, contextualised alongside his artworks, personal papers, social and political moments, as well as key artistic friendships, networks and influences.”

...The CAM journal Savacou was named after Moody’s 1964 public artwork Savacou, the artist’s visualisation of a Carib deity based on his interests in Taino Cosmology. – Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, mixed media artist and archivist

Sculpting Life highlights the involvement of the sculpture artist in international movements, from the Harlem Renaissance (1918 - 1937)—which marked a major revival of African-American creativity—to his foundational role in the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM, 1966 - 1972), which was active in London and brought together Caribbean artists, writers, poets, dramatists and musicians.

Sowinski remarks on Moody’s work in relation to other members of the Caribbean Arts Movement, telling STIR, “Moody’s artworks are placed within the context of his contemporaries Paul Dash (artist and writer), Errol Lloyd (artist and writer), Althea McNish (artist and designer) and Aubrey Williams (artist)…The CAM journal Savacou was named after Moody’s 1964 public artwork Savacou, the artist’s visualisation of a Carib deity based on his interests in Taino Cosmology.”

Moody, who was born in Jamaica and moved to England at the age of 23, initially worked as a dentist to support his artmaking and had close associations with at least two other public figures who lived parallel lives. There was his brother Harold Moody (1882 - 1947), a physician and civil-rights activist and Paul Robeson (1898 - 1976), who worked as an actor and was also involved in activism. Featured in the exhibition are Moody’s sculptures of these men, as well as others he was close to or inspired by, such as poet and musician Christopher Logue (1926 - 2011) and actor and comedian Terry Thomas (1911 - 1990).

The exhibition also features a newly commissioned installation by British artist Kedisha Coakley. Coakley’s new works reflect her shared inspirations with Moody, ranging from Caribbean mythology to Egyptian culture. Her installation also functions as an archive of Moody’s writing and poetry work. Furthermore, the exhibition is accompanied by an eponymous biography written by Sowinski, which was published in June 2024 by Thames & Hudson in association with The Hepworth Wakefield. On the whole, Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life is an expansive offering of wood carvings, sculpture art and more, that treats audiences to the life and work of one of the most influential Black English artists of the 20th century, and rightfully frames him in a culture of Black artistic excellence.

‘Ronald Moody: Sculpting Life’ is on view from June 22 - November 3, 2024, at The Hepworth Wakefield in England, the United Kingdom.