Viewing Henry Moore: Monumental Nature

Moore in bloom.

Kew Gardens becomes an open-air stage for one of Britain’s greatest sculptors this spring, as Henry Moore: Monumental Nature brings the largest ever outdoor presentation of Moore’s work to the 320-acre UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Thirty monumental sculptures will be placed across the gardens and inside the Temperate House, allowing Moore’s great bronze forms to meet trees, lawns, glasshouses and shifting light. It is hard to imagine a more fitting setting for an artist so profoundly shaped by the natural world. Bones, stones, shells, hills, reclining bodies and botanical forms all fed his imagination, and here those references return to the landscape that first inspired them.

Alongside the outdoor presentation, the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art will host more than 90 smaller-scale works, including sculpture, drawings, models and sketchbooks, offering a closer look at Moore’s process. More than your typical sculpture show, Monumental Nature is a full-bodied encounter between art and nature. Big forms, bigger feelings.