HENRY MOORE: HENRY MOORE AND GREECE

Gagosian is pleased to announce Henry Moore and Greece, organized in collaboration with the Henry Moore Foundation.

September 12 – October 26, 2024

In his early stone and wood carvings, Moore had turned away from classical tradition, deriving inspiration mostly from non-European cultures—for example, African and Mesoamerican art. It was not until the early 1950s, and especially following his 1951 visit to Greece, that his attention became increasingly drawn to Greek art.

Modeling in clay or plaster and casting in bronze allowed him to work on a larger scale and to incorporate a greater sense of movement in his sculptures. Fragmentary figures—increasingly male and designed to be seen in the round—show more varied surface treatments than those of his earlier work and often incorporate clinging drapery.

Henry Moore and Greece explores links between Moore’s practice and earlier, antique Greek art, such as Cycladic sculpture. The artist made his one and only visit to mainland Greece in 1951 for an exhibition at the Zappeion Hall in Athens, also traveling to the archaeological sites of Delphi, Olympia, and Mycenae. He did not exhibit again in Athens until 1965. Large Standing Figure: Knife Edge (1961) is one of Moore’s tallest and most striking postwar bronzes, informed by his interest in Cycladic figurines but at the same time recalling The Winged Victory [or Niké] of Samothrace (c. 200–190 BCE). The exhibition also includes casts of Draped Reclining Figure (1952–53), Falling Warrior (1956–57), and the heads of King and Queen (1952–53)—key sculptures in Moore’s dialogue with Greek art.

This is the third collaboration between Gagosian and the Henry Moore Foundation, following the exhibitions Late Large Forms at Britannia Street, London, and West 21st Street, New York, in 2012 and Wunderkammer—Origin of Forms at Davies Street, London, in 2015.