Twelve sculptures by Henry Moore have been shipped to Holland to inaugurate the newly reopened Rijksmuseum’s Gardens next month.
The full list of works being transported has been revealed by the Henry Moore Foundation, with many of the pieces having never been seen in Holland before, marking an exciting debut for the Gardens, which have been updated to coincide with the institution’s reopening last month after a 10-year, £320-million development programme. This “outdoor gallery” will see a rotation of annual sculpture displays over the coming years, of which the Moore exhibition is the first. The show will open on June 22, 2013.
Highlights of the work on display will be Reclining Woman: Elbow (1981), which has not left its position next to the façade of Leeds Art Gallery since it was created, and Large Reclining Figure (1984), for which Moore enlarged a tiny 1938 maquette to over nine meters in length. Other pieces include Large Two Forms (1966), which can be physically entered by the public, and the white fibreglass work Locking Piece (1963-1964).
Rijksmuseum senior sculpture curator Frits Scholten told ARTINFO UK: “It started with the idea that we wanted to make our garden more a public space with summer exhibitions and then a private donor allowed us to realise the plans for five or six years. Moore was high on my list because I consider him the primordial sculptor. The Henry Moore Foundation could help us at fairly short notice as we started talks 18 months ago.”
Scholten said the Moores were selected with specific sites in mind. They will fall into two groups: “reclining figures” will be shown in more open spaces, while bigger, abstract work from the late 1950s and 1960s will be shown on three of the four sides of the garden close to the museum.
He added that the British pieces would complement 17th- and 18th-century Netherlandish garden sculptures already in place, including a newly restored copy of a work by Adriaen de Vries (the original is now in the Louvre). Utrecht-based Landscape architectural firm Copijn has also updated the original gardens to feature a water maze designed by Danish sculptor Jeppe Hein, complementing the original lawns and ponds created in line with Pierre Cuypers’s plan for the site.
“Henry Moore Outside,”Rijksmuseum Gardens, June 22, 2013 – June 22, 2014