Henry Moore first attracted significant public attention during the Second World War when the drawings he made of Londoners sheltering from the Blitz in tube stations were first published. Although Moore’s reputation today rests mainly on his monumental sculptures, those intimate drawings of men, women, and children taking refuge in such claustrophobic conditions remain powerful and affecting. The Courtauld in London has displayed some of this work in a small exhibition called Shadows on the Wall.

The premise of the exhibition is Moore’s fascination with those confining walls, ceilings, and tunnels – architectural elements that he explored further in his well-known drawings of the Yorkshire coal mines and that were far more than simple backdrops for the human figures he represented. It’s an interesting idea. Looking closely at the drawings, the fusion of the human and the architectural becomes more pronounced.

The engrossing exhibition in London ends soon, but a catalog authored by Penelope Curtis and others is available.