The Art Newspaper

Two Henry Moore shows for Russia

The sculptor's foundation is planning to loan work to the Hermitage in St Petersburg and the Moscow Kremlin Museums

By Cristina Carrillo De Albornoz. Web only
Published online: 27 April 2010

leeds. The UK’s Henry Moore Foundation is in negotiations with the Moscow Kremlin Museums to exhibit the work of the influential 20th-century sculptor. “It will be the first time that modern art will be presented in the Kremlin Museums,” Anita Feldman, the newly appointed head of collections and exhibitions at the foundation, told The Art Newspaper. “Elena Gagarina, general director of Moscow Kremlin Museums, visited us a year ago. When she saw the Moore studios and the collection she was thrilled. She approached the chairman of our trustees with a letter requesting collaboration on a show.”

The exhibition selection is still to be decided, but it will include sculptures and drawings from the Leeds-based foundation. The show was initially planned for 2011 but has now been postponed to 2012. “The Kremlin is at the stage of fundraising and budget talks about what kind of exhibition they can afford, as well as in which parts of the Kremlin work will be installed,” said Feldman. “For now it is unlikely that we can take outdoor sculptures to their gardens.”

The Moscow Kremlin, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is a historic fortified complex that includes nine museums as well as the official residence of the president of Russia. Every planned detail needs official permission and bureaucracy can make projects move slowly. “It is a really exciting project and we are used to unusual situations like this,” said Feldman. “When we did the large Moore exhibition inside the Forbidden City in Beijing, it was very rewarding. The key is patience and knowing we will have to meet different requirements, as we would to do an exhibition in France, for example, such as the one we are preparing at the Rodin Museum this coming autumn.”

There is also a second Moore project planned in Russia. The foundation is working with the Hermitage in St Petersburg on an exhibition for spring 2011, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Siege of Leningrad. The show, part of the Hermitage 20/21 project—an ongoing programme set up in 2007 by curator Dimitri Ozerkov to bring modern and contemporary art into the institution—will occupy five galleries in the modern part of the museum that faces the Winter Palace. It will include 75 drawings from Moore’s series documenting shelters during the London Blitz of 1940-41.

During the early part of the second world war, the artist had to give up working on sculpture when his Hampstead studio was bombed. Instead he concentrated on drawing, creating a monumental series of works showing the plight of those sheltering in the London Underground. “There are many significant parallels because the Hermitage Museum was also used as a shelter when the Germans were bombing Leningrad [St Petersburg],” said Feldman. The show will also include three outdoor sculptures at the Winter Palace and five indoor sculptures. “Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky, who once met Henry Moore, came to the foundation a week ago and felt quite happy with this selection,” said Feldman. “These exceptional works, rarely available to the public, will be hung close to other great icons of the 20th century—Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky, Malevich, all part of the Hermitage’s own collection.”