The largest outdoor exhibition ever staged of Henry Moore’s work will take place at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in summer 2026. Titled “Henry Moore: Monumental Nature,” the show will include more than 100 pieces, including 30 large-scale sculptures displayed across Kew’s 320-acre site. It will also include installations inside the Temperate House, the world’s largest surviving Victorian glasshouse. Opening in May, the exhibition marks a major moment for the late British artist, whose work has not been presented on this scale in a public landscape since he died in 1986.
Moore, a key figure in 20th-century sculpture, is known for his abstracted reclining figures and organic shapes inspired by bones, stones, and natural landscapes. He believed outdoor settings were ideal spaces for viewing his work, allowing nature to amplify the visual and emotional effects of his sculptures. Sculptural works such as Large Two Forms (1969) and Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae (1968-69) will be shown in the context of the world-renowned horticulture of Kew Gardens.
The exhibition will extend beyond outdoor sculpture to include more than 90 works in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art. That presentation will include bronzes, wood carvings, drawings, and prints that reflect Moore’s evolving engagement with natural forms and materials. Some of the pieces on view are rarely shown to the public.
“This new exhibition will invite visitors to engage deeply with Moore’s artistic inspirations, revealing how his work was shaped by the scientific and natural discoveries unfolding during his lifetime,” said Paul Denton, director of Creative Programmes and Exhibitions at RBG Kew.
The exhibition at Kew follows a 2007 display of Moore’s work at the gardens, but the 2026 show will be more ambitious in both scale and scope. A parallel exhibition, “Henry Moore and more,” will run at Wakehurst botanical gardens, Kew’s sister site in Sussex, featuring four Moore sculptures alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists.
Kew Gardens has hosted several exhibitions by contemporary artists in the past, including commissions by Marshmallow Laser Feast, Marc Quinn, Felicity Aylieff, and Mat Collishaw.
from Artsy News https://ift.tt/XdBIMG2
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