Thirty works by the late UK sculptor Henry Moore will be displayed at Kew Gardens—a Unesco World Heritage site—in London next year in the exhibition Henry Moore: Monumental Nature (9 May-27 September 2026). The show will be the largest outdoor presentation of the sculptor's work to date.
“This new exhibition will span Kew’s entire 320-acre site, in contrast to the 2007 presentation of Moore’s works in the Gardens, which was concentrated in a few specific areas,” says a statement. Some pieces will also be displayed in Kew’s famous Temperate House, the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world.
The Henry Moore Foundation in Hertfordshire is lending most of the pieces which include Large Two Forms, Oval with Points (1968-70), Reclining Woman: Elbow, Locking Piece (1981) and Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae (1968-69).
A further 90 works—including bronzes, stone and wood carvings, prints and drawings—will go on show at Kew’s Shirley Sherwood Gallery. A statement from the gardens says: “The gallery exhibition will explore [Moore’s] creative responses to the fragility of the natural world, and the role of humans within the complex ecosystems which connect all life on earth.” Works on loan from Tate and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich will also be included.
A spokesperson for Kew explains that its programme of festivals and exhibitions are funded from income generated by its activities but that it is “actively exploring a range of sponsorship opportunities to support the exhibition and will confirm these in due course”.
Meanwhile four Moore sculptures will be shown in tandem at Kew’s wild botanic garden at Wakehurst, Sussex, (5 June-27 September 2026) alongside commissioned pieces from contemporary artists which are to be announced.
Sebastiano Barassi, the head of Henry Moore collections and programmes, says in a statement: “By presenting his sculptures across both Kew and Wakehurst, we’re offering a fresh perspective on Moore’s legacy—one that invites visitors to reflect on nature, humanity, and the environment at a time when those themes feel more urgent and relevant than ever.”
Moore often described the benefits of working in natural landscapes, saying in 1934: “There is, in nature a limitless variety of shapes and rhythms—and the telescope and microscope have enlarged the field—from which the sculptor can enlarge his form-knowledge experience.”
