Ronald Moody was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1900, moving to London in 1923 to study dentistry. He took up sculpture in 1930 and produced his first carved head, 'Wohin', in 1935, experiencing success from the very outset of his artistic career. His work, showing the influence of Egyptian, Pre-Columbian and Buddhist sculpture, was also informed by his interest in transcendental philosophy and metaphysics. A versatile sculptor, he experimented with bronze, concrete and fibreglass and exhibited widely in England and overseas.
Sculptor Ronald Moody was born, one of six children, into a middle-class family in Kingston, Jamaica on 12 August 1900. He moved to London in 1923 (following his brother Harold, a prominent anti-racist campaigner, who was already living there) to study dentistry at King's College London and the Royal Dental Hospital, Leicester Square. Moody mixed with artists and explored philosophy, particularly Indian and Chinese teachings, which were to become important influences on his art. Inspired by African and Asian art which he saw at the British Museum, he abandoned dentistry around 1930 and took up sculpture. Cynthia Moody, his niece, quoted Moody describing the profound effect a visit to the British Museum made on him: 'To my utter amazement I saw […] felt and, I think, understood the tremendous inner force, the living inner silence, the irrepressible movement in stillness, which some of the pieces possessed, which also seemed to spread through my body. When I eventually left, people and things around me appeared to have changed. My relationship with them was clearer, closer and more distant. I scarcely discussed what had happened but knew what I must do' (Caribbean Beat). Moody taught himself to sculpt by experimenting with dentistry plaster and plasticine. He produced his first work in carved wood, Wohin, in 1935, which was purchased by prominent writer and biographer Marie Seton, who became Moody's life-long friend and supporter.
Moody experienced success from the outset of his artistic career, exhibiting in London (Adams Gallery, 1935) and elsewhere in the UK, including the Walker Gallery, Liverpool (1936). His forceful, dignified and serene figures, sculpted from hardwoods suc as oak, teak and rosewood, ‘evoked the kind of classical calm found in the history of many cultures’ (Times obituary). Showing the influence of Egyptian, Pre-Columbian and Buddhist sculpture, they were also informed by Moody’s interest in transcendental philosophy and metaphysics. A versatile sculptor, he also experimented with bronze, concrete and fibreglass. In 1938 Moody moved to Paris after the success of his first two major exhibitions (Paris (1937) and Amsterdam (1938)). He continued to show in Paris, including at the Salon des Tuileries (1938 and 1939) and his work received much praise. In 1939 his great female head, Midonz (1937, Tate Collection), and other work, featured in the Contemporary Negro Art exhibition which toured New York, Baltimore and Boston in the USA.
Following the German invasion of France in 1940 Moody and his Jewish wife returned to England in 1941. As his niece wrote, he '[…] was profoundly affected by his experiences in France and the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, and much of his subsequent work concerned the dichotomy between man’s potential for self-destruction and for spiritual evolution' (Caribbean Beat). Despite limited carving materials and tools available in the immediate postwar period, in 1946 Moody exhibited at the Arcade Gallery. However, the following year he contracted tuberculosis, the result of privations faced in France. During his convalescence he worked with the BBC to broadcast radio programmes, including a series on world art history and a lecture challenging the notion of ‘Primitive art’. Moody only fully returned to working and exhibiting by 1950, when he held a show at Galerie Apollinaire in London. The exhibition was well-received by the critics and led to extensive press coverage and the acquisition of The Priest (1939) by what is now the Government Art Collection. By then, Moody had resumed his regular talks on the BBC's programme Calling the West Indies. Throughout the 1950s, he gave many talks and participated in several BBC programmes. In 1952, Moody became a member of the Society of Portrait Sculptors and was elected to the Society's Council in 1959. He also showed at the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1960, a solo show of new work was held at London's Woodstock Gallery.
In 1964 Moody travelled to Jamaica for the inauguration of his sculpture Savacou, presented to the University of the West Indies, his first visit back home since leaving for England 41 years earlier. After his return to London, the renewed links with the past led him to join the Caribbean Artists Movement in 1967. In 1977 Moody was awarded the Musgrave Gold Medal, Jamaica's most prestigious cultural award and in 1981 the Minority Arts' Advisory Service Award, London (MAAS), for his outstanding contribution to sculpture in Britain. Ronald Moody died in London, England on 6 February 1984. His works are held in numerous UK public collections, including the Government Art Collection; Graves Gallery, Sheffield; Guildhall Art Gallery; National Portrait Gallery (portrait of Harold Moody) and Tate. Posthumously his work has featured in important survey shows including The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-war Britain, Hayward Gallery and touring (1989) and Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s, Tate Britain (2021). A photographic portrait of Moody (1963) by Val Wilmer is held by King's College London.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Ronald Moody]
Publications related to [Ronald Moody] in the Ben Uri Library