A book from the Great North Museum: Hancock Library is going to be the star of an exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds this year.

The book which is part of the Library of the Natural History Society of Northumbria  is by D’Arcy Wentwork Thompson and is titled “On Growth and Form”. It is a first edition and was published  in 1917.  It is a poetic and mathematical study of scale, gravity, order and process which lodged itself within the conciousness of 20th Century sculpture.  Henry Moore was introduced to the book both while studying in Leeds in 1919 and again in the 1930’s and it influenced his work. Richard Hamilton who studied the work as a student in Newcastle took the title “On Growth and Form”for his 1951 landmark exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.   

The exhibition will run from 14 May till 17 August and is titled “D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form”.   The copy of the book will be on display alongside four drawings by Henry Moore that are known as the “Transformation” drawings that reflect the influence of Thompson on Moore’s artistic practice.