Power of Nature. Henry Moore in Poland
Following an interval of almost sixty years, works by Henry Moore, one of the most prominent European artists of the 20th century, will be on show in Wrocław.
Following an interval of almost sixty years, works by Henry Moore, one of the most prominent European artists of the 20th century, will be once again on show in Wrocław.
Henry Moore – the leading exponent of organic abstract art – is considered to be the artist whose work occupied a crucial place in the European art, and whose sculptures strongly influenced many generations of sculptors, including those in Poland. His creations, focused on a single human form or a group, captured in a monumental and synthetic form, are today among the classics of 20th-century sculpture.
In early 1960, the then branch of the Silesian Museum (now the National Museum in Wrocław) located in the Old Town Hall, presented for the first time works created by this world-class artist. That exhibition is remembered as one of the most important artistic events in the times of Poland’s isolation from the rest of Europe behind the Iron Curtain imposed by the treaty of Yalta. The post-war Polish society had only scarce opportunities of contacts with the most significant artistic trends in the contemporary world arts scene, its inspirations and the artists who created it.
The Henry Moore exhibition provided such an opportunity and enjoyed a very warm reception. The current exhibition, co-organised with the Henry Moore Foundation HMF in Hertfordshire (Great Britain), was shown in the Polish Sculpture Centre in Orońsko and in 2019 will be presented in the National Museum in Kraków. The exhibition, housed in the Four Domes Pavilion, will be a retrospective showcasing 23 works created by Moore during the fifty years of his career, and will also include his large-scale outdoor bronze sculptures.
Photo © The Henry Moore Foundation
