Gisborne's "Henry Moore"

Opening at the Gisborne art gallery today is an exhibition of sculpture which may spark a controversy as lively as the Auckland rumpus over Henry Moore.

The conventional work of Gisborne's Norman W. J. Scott is well known; today his abstract sculpture will be on show here for the first time.

One of New Zealand's few full-time artists, Norman makes no secret of his admiration for Henry Moore. Is he influenced by him?

Says Normans "Almost every sculptor with modern ideas is influenced by Henry Moore."

Norman began his serious art studies in London before the war. Service with the Air Force interrupted his work, but he returned later to study at the Slade School of Art., Norman's paintings and sculpture have been exhibited in Auckland. Wellington, Hamilton, Gisborne, Wanganui, and the Bay of Plenty.

Norman's sculpturing tools vary from delicate wood gougers to an ordinary axe and saw.

His material — to-tara, matai, or macro-carpa — is often mere driftwood picked up off the beach.

In his sculpturing. Norman makes use of the natural lines of the wood to form artistic shapes.