http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/truth_to_material(s).aspx

Truth to material(s)

A Dictionary of Twentieth Century Art/ 1999/ Ian Chilvers

Quote: Henry Moore (English Sculptor and artist) wrote that  'Each material has its own individual qualities...Stone, for example, is hard and concentrated and should not be falsified to look like soft flesh...It should keep its hard tense stoniness.'

Materials need to be accepted as they are and used simply by artists (examples include Henry Moore, Robert Morris, Helen Calder, Eve Hesse) to explore their strengths and generate conversation and understanding around their materiality and the ability of that material.

http://www.woodworkinghistory.com/glossary_truth_to_materials.htm

 - Moore wrote in 1941 that' [o]ne of the first principles of art so clearly seen in primitive work is truth to materials; the artist shows an instinctive understanding of his material, its right use and possibilities.'

Moore expounded his ideas on 'truth to material' in his essay of 1937, 'The Sculptor Speaks' -
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=pzqg4l-ce7oC&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=henry+moore+the+sculptor+speaks&source=bl&ots=m68Ga8jQSk&sig=LLjyywlJE_sdD7A2vWtxg-GUU3I&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JecQUIGsBMaaiAfZoYDQBw&ved=0CFYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=henry%20moore%20the%20sculptor%20speaks&f=false
Ideas that interest me:

 - Looking closely at materials:
 Moore uses Pebbles/ stone as an example: Nature interacts with the stone and manipulates it each time they come into contact. The relationship with each stone is different and each interaction with the same stone changes resulting in naturally occurring shapes.

 - Scale:
Scale is important in terms of a creating a specific vision you have for a material
Sometimes the materials feel right an the idea is there but you need the right scale for the correct vision to be created, and for it to be an effective and successful work all round.
"A carving might be several times over life size and yet be petty and small in feeling, and a small carving only a few inches in height can give the feeling of hug size and monumental grandeur, because the vision behind it is big....."
"Yet actual physical size has an emotional meaning. We relate everything to our own size, and our emotional response to size is controlled by the fact that men on the average are between five and six feet high. "
"Sculpture is more affected by actual size considerations than painting. A painting is isolated by a frame from its surroundings and so it retains more easily its own imaginary scale."
- "in between size does not disconnect an idea enough from prosaic everyday life."

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