Sixty years after Henry Moore was paraded around Poland in a five-venue exhibition tour introducing him to the country, a new major show of the popular British sculptor is planned to return. Opening later this year and organised by the UK-based Henry Moore Foundation (HMF) in partnership with three Polish institutions, Henry Moore in Poland will include 23 sculptures—around nine of them large-scale works—from the foundation’s collection.
The new exhibition will reflect on the effect that Moore had on Modern and contemporary artists in Poland in the latter half of the 21st century by showing works from Polish museums alongside the foundation’s sculptures. The original tour in 1959-60, which opened at the Zacheta Gallery in Warsaw, was organised by the British Council and was part of a number of “projects of regeneration and reconciliation in the aftermath of World War II”, says Hannah Higham, a curator at the HMF.
“The new show is interesting in the current political climate, with Brexit and the fragmentation of Europe again, after 60 years of piecing it back together,” Higham says. “But one of the things that Moore’s art did back then—and is doing again now—is going beyond the borders and political divisions and talking about very universal themes.”
The show will open at the Centre for Polish Sculpture in Orońsku (21 April-9 September) before heading to the National Museum Wroclaw’s Four Domes Pavilion (29 September-20 January 2019) and the National Museum Krakow (21 February 2019-30 June 2019). The show is funded by the HMF and the three Polish venues with additional support from Poland’s Ministry of Culture.
