| BiographicalHistory | Joan Augusta Munro Moore, daughter of Arthur W. Dodwell Moore, (her father was Registrar to the Archbishop of Canterbury), was born 10 March 1909. The Moore family lived at West Chiltington Common, West Sussex, after outbreak of the First World War, in a house called 'Finches'. Moore was dyslexic and educated privately at Bexhill and Chislehurst schools. She attended further schooling in Lyme Regis where she was trained in tailoring and cooking.
Moore entered the Slade School of Fine Art in September 1932, gaining a Fine Art Diploma in June 1935. She re-entered the Slade in 1936 for two terms only to study 'Short Poses', at the invitation of A. H. Gerrard, (1899-1989), Head of Sculpture. He was her teacher at Slade with a particular influence in terms of her interest in Egyptian sculpture. Moore financed her studies partly by teaching at Hampstead Garden Suburb and then after leaving the Slade taught at a girls' school in Burgess Hill, Sussex.
Joan Moore met sculptor Kenneth Armitage, (1916-2002), in his first year at the Slade in 1937 and they shared a studio together in Varndell Street, London. They married on 21 July 1940. Their relationship proved to be a complicated one although founded on mutual admiration but with little physical attraction. The marriage broke down shortly after the Second World War and by the mid 1950s they had separated but they never divorced. They remained close friends throughout their lives and kept up a regular and frank correspondence.
Armitage served in the Royal Artillery and Moore moved to Catterick and then Aldershot to be near him. She worked in factories making plastic pipes for aeroplanes during the war and it was only after the war, when they moved to Redcliffe Square, London, that she took up carving again.
She joined the Women's International Association and was its Vice-Chair for a short period and also a committee member of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. She also taught at Camden School of Art where she learnt enamelling from a jeweller.
In the 1960s she left Redcliffe Square and moved to a cottage in Highgate to which she added a studio. This incorporated a kiln and enabled her to pursue enameling, using colour within her sculptures. She created paper 'toiles' which she used as patterns for the cutting of the steel, a skill derived from her training in tailoring and dressmaking. Her most characteristic work was of animals, particularly birds, from the life drawings she made during visits to London Zoo.
In the 1970s Moore also took a studio in a village near San Remo, Bussna Vecchia, Italy. In later years Moore lived at 1 Gordon Close, (between 87-89 Highgate Hill), London, N19 5NE. She died on 14 October 1996.
Solo shows:
Everyman Cinema, Hampstead, London, 1963 & 1967
Andsell Gallery, London, 1968
Upper Street Gallery, London, 1972 & 1976
Megmell Gallery, London, 1980
Gordon Close Studio, London, 1981
George Large Gallery, St Albans, 1984
South Grove, Hampstead, London, 1986
Square Gallery, Highgate, London, 1988
Selected group exhibitions:
Arts Council tour, 1958
John Moores exhibition, Liverpool, 1961, 1963 & 1965
City of London Exhibition, 1968
'Art in Steel' exhibition, with the Steel Corporation, 1968
Open Art Exhibition at The Bankside Globe Playhouse, London, 1972
Artists' International Association
Public commissions and awards:
Bronze Group for Burnley Town Centre, 1962
Wood carving for Debyshire Education Committee, 1963
Gold Medal Awarded by the City of Athens, 1967
Bronze group purchased by the Arts Council for The Little Angel Marrionette Theatre, London, 1965
Steep Group purchased by BP for Britannic House, London, 1981
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