PERRY GREEN.- At the end of a formative year, the Henry Moore Foundation announced an ambitious programme for 2021 which explores the history, politics and future of sculpture through a dynamic programme of exhibitions, events and symposia.

Leading a pair of exhibitions opening at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, ‘Portable Sculpture’ brings together work from the 1930s to today which is intended to travel – whether for practical, geopolitical or personal reasons. Alongside this exhibition, the Henry Moore Institute will present a new solo commission by Rafael Pérez Evans, whose radical installation ‘Grounding’ at Goldsmiths this summer saw him dump 29 tonnes of fresh carrots into the courtyard of the university to explore ideas of protest, agriculture and labour.

The autumn programme will launch with a new exhibition of new and recent work by artist duo Julia Crabtree and William Evans, exploring the possibilities of sculpture through themes including the relationship between ecologies and the body, the virtual and the real, and the meeting point of craft and technology.

Meanwhile Henry Moore Studios & Gardens in Hertfordshire will launch their 2021 programme with This Living Hand, curated by Edmund de Waal to explore the role of touch in Moore’s work. The expansive outdoor sculpture estate will be open to visitors from March 2021 to explore Moore’s home, work and studios, and to discover the landscape that inspired and informed his art practice.

Finally, following a successful programme of digital events throughout 2020, the Henry Moore Institute will present future debates and events online and in person. Subjects will include a research season exploring current debates around Monuments and their legacies; and the relationship between sculpture and dress featuring a series of artists and academics.

Henry Moore Institute
Leeds
Exhibitions 2021
Portable Sculpture 5 February–29 August 2021
Henry Moore Institute is delighted to present a group exhibition exploring sculptures made to fold up, pack down or to travel.

Portable Sculpture brings together fifteen artists, including Louise Bourgeois, Marcel Duchamp, Barry Flanagan, Mohamad Hafez, Do Ho Suh and Veronica Ryan, with work from 1934 to the present day. Several works are being exhibited in the UK for the first time and the exhibition includes new sculptures by Claire Ashley and James Ackerley.

The long history of portable sculpture dates back to the small, carved stones made by nomadic tribes during the Ice Age. A combination of unstable geopolitics and sweeping economic change during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has made questions about home and identity, migration and travel, or stability and impermanence ever more pressing. The exhibition explores a variety of responses to circumstances in which permanence is difficult to achieve.




Rafael Pérez Evans 20 February–27 June 2021
Earlier this year, sculptor Rafael Pérez Evans dropped twenty-nine tons of (animal grade) carrots outside Goldsmiths College, University of London. Echoing the protests of Spanish farmers that became familiar to him as a child, the gesture created a roadblock of produce, highlighting ongoing tensions around farming, food surpluses, waste and devaluation. Pérez Evans’ temporary sculptures made of grain, vegetables and milk, draw upon a legacy of 1960’s sculpture and Land Art, and visualise the ever increasing distance between the consumers and producers of food. His exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute will comprise two new works, including one outside the building.

Rafael Pérez Evans lives and works in London. He is the recipient of the Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Beckett University scholarship in partnership with New Contemporaries 2019. Pérez Evans received a BA and MFA Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, University of London (2010 and 2020). Recent exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, C3A Museum, Córdoba and Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona. A series of research events and activities accompanies the exhibition. Including speakers Dr Heather Diack (University of Miami), Dr Jo Melvin (University of the Arts, London / Barry Flanagan Estate) and artists Claire Ashley and Mohamad Hafez.

Julia Crabtree and William Evans 17 September 2021–16 January 2022
This exhibition by Julia Crabtree and William Evans will include new and recent work by the duo who have collaborated for over a decade. Using a wealth of materials to explore the possibilities of sculpture, their work responds to themes that are vital to its production today, including entropy, the relationship between ecologies and the body, the virtual and the real, and the meeting point of craft and technology.

Crabtree and Evans were the recipients of the Nina Stewart Residency award at South London Gallery, the Mary Hofsetter Legacy Scholarship for the New Materiality residency at the Banff Centre, Canada and are Wysing Arts Centre residency alumni. Recent commissions include Gulch, exhibited at the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff and Crutch shown as part of Maximum Overdrive at Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea. Solo exhibitions include Cell Project Space, London, South London Gallery and Legion TV, London.

Spring Opening:
Henry Moore Studios & Gardens
Perry Green, Hertfordshire (40 mins from central London)
Henry Moore Studios & Gardens will reopen to the public from 31 March 2021 welcoming visitors to explore its 72 acre estate including the expansive sculpture gardens surrounding Moore’s rural home, Hogland’s House, and studio network throughout the grounds. Henry Moore Studios & Gardens showcases Henry Moore's iconic sculptures including Family Group (1948-49), Double Oval (1966) and Sheep Piece (1971-72), offering an experience of his work in a safe and socially distanced environment. Moore’s home and studios served as a profound source of inspiration, and what began as a modest farmhouse grew to incorporate acres of countryside, to become the epicentre of his global art presence.

This Living Hand: Edmund de Waal presents Henry Moore
Henry Moore Studios & Gardens
31 March – 31 October 2021
The acclaimed artist and author, Edmund de Waal, has curated an exhibition of works by Henry Moore in which visitors will be encouraged to touch some of the sculptures. Entitled This Living Hand: Edmund de Waal Presents Henry Moore, the exhibition will focus on the role of touch and the hand in Henry Moore’s art and will also include a series of original sculptures.

Edmund de Waal has placed Moore’s words ‘tactile experience is very important as an aesthetic dimension in sculpture’ at the heart of his exhibition, which also showcases the iconography of the hand in Moore’s works.