‘D'Arcy Thompson's on Growth and Form’ – major new exhibition in Leeds

Published On Thu 8 May 2014 by Grant Hill

The work of D’Arcy Thompson, Dundee’s first Professor of Biology whose work has inspired artists, scientist and philosophers among others, will be celebrated at an exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds opening this month.

The exhibition is a partnership with the University of Dundee’s D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, from where most of the items being shown have been borrowed, and takes place from 14th May to 17th August. Matthew Jarron, Curator of Museum Services at the University, will join artists and academics for a workshop examining the impact Thompson’s work has had on modern sculptors, at the end of the month.

A selection of Thompson's teaching models will be displayed, including intricate glass models of jellyfish made in the Dresden Blaschka studio and a series of brightly coloured plaster models of the growth of a primitive vertebrate.

Alongside these models are four 'Transformation' drawings by Henry Moore in the 1930s. Held in the collection of The Henry Moore Foundation, these show the influence of Thompson on Moore's sculptural thinking, specifically his Theory of Transformations.

Matthew said, “Moore was the first of many sculptors whose ideas about sculptural form-making were fundamentally shaped by reading D’Arcy’s work. We’re delighted to be working with the Henry Moore Institute on this exciting project,”

Thompson (1860-1948) was the first Professor of Biology at University College Dundee, now the University of Dundee, and also spent many years working at the University of St Andrews. 

In 1917, he published ‘On Growth and Form’, a poetic and mathematical study of scale, gravity, order and process.

This book lodged itself within the consciousness of twentieth-century art. Henry Moore turned to Thompson's work while studying in Leeds in 1919 and Richard Hamilton, who took the title for his 1951 landmark exhibition at London's ICA, said the text “charged my batteries for a number of years”.

More information about the exhibition can be found at http://www.henry-moore.org/hmi/exhibitions/on-growth-and-form.

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