A graceful column tucked among small trees and foliage. A group of arched, interlocking bonelike forms rising from a pond. A massive reclining figure commanding a grassy rise.
These are among the many sights in a not-to- be-missed exhibition, which opens March 8 at an unexpected yet ideally suited venue — the Denver Botanic Gardens.
The show features 20 monumental, primarily bronze sculptures by celebrated British sculptor Henry Moore, ranging in size from a sprawling, white figure 29 1/2 feet long to an intimate depiction of a mother cradling a child that stands a little less than 3 feet tall.
“Moore in the Gardens” is by far the largest and most ambitious art exhibition ever mounted by the botanic gardens, and it is the first major open- air display of Moore’s sculptures in the Western United States.
The offering, which continues through Jan. 31, 2011, can be seen as this year’s other blockbuster, an ideal complement to the Denver Art Museum’s slick, headline-grabbing King Tut extravaganza, which runs July 1 through Jan. 2, 2011.
“Moore in the Gardens” is a more approachable offering, which can be enjoyed in a relaxed way and can be visited again and again, with the seasons and changing light making the experience different each time.
Few other sculptors could be showcased this way , because their works are too small or too fragile for outdoor display or because they don’t possess the kind of name recognition necessary to draw large crowds and make the undertaking financially feasible.
Lisa Eldred, director of exhibitions, expects the show to attract viewers from across the region and elevate the botanic gardens’ 2010 attendance well past last year’s record-setting 633,000 visitors.
“I’d love to reach 1 million visitors for the run of the exhibition, given the reach it has to a multistate audience,” she said.
Top British artist
Moore (1898-1986) was spotlighted in his first solo exhibition in 1928 and emerged after World War II as the most celebrated British artist of his time. His works can be found in indoor and outdoor collections worldwide, and his popularity remains undiminished.
Although he worked in other media, including drawing and printmaking, he is best known for his sculptures, which are abstracted to varying degrees, drawing on a range of influences including ancient sculpture and the European avant-garde.
Moore managed the tricky balancing act of creating works that were conceptually daring and progressive yet still understandable and accessible to viewers who know little about art history and are often put off by abstraction.
“The thing that people respond to the most is the fact that no matter how abstract his sculpture is, it’s still rooted in natural form and organic objects — the curvature of a bone, pebbles, seashells. All these things were sources of inspiration for his work,” said Anita Feldman, curator of the Henry Moore Foundation.
Indeed, viewers are counseled to start their visit with a small exhibit inside the Boettcher Memorial Center. It contains two display cases with several dozen examples of Moore’s inches-tall maquettes as well as some of the objects that inspired them — whale-bone fragments, seashells and flint stones.
These maquettes were significantly enlarged and cast in bronze, and the transformation is startling. Moore created about 200 different monumental bronzes, ranging from unique works to editions with as many as nine casts.
But Feldman emphasizes that his monumental works, which he began only after World War II, were a small fraction of his overall sculptural output.
“Really, only about 10 percent of his work was enlarged,” she said. “He worked on a very small, intimate scale.”
Large exhibits rare
“Moore in the Gardens” was organized by the Henry Moore Foundation, which was established by the artist in 1977. It manages his artistic holdings, archives and copyrights, oversees his former home, gardens and studios north of London and administers grants in art education.
While the foundation regularly assembles exhibitions, it rarely puts together touring displays of his large-scale outdoor pieces, because of the high cost of transportation and its wish to keep a large portion of the 50 such works it owns on regular view at Moore’s estate.
The first permutation of this exhibition was created for Kew Gardens in London, and a modified version later traveled to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. The success of that offering spawned an exhibition in Atlanta and this one in Denver, which contains the same works that were on view in New York.
“Moore in the Gardens” offers examples of each of the sculptor’s major themes: mother and child (“Mother and Child,” 1949), reclining figures (“Reclining Figure: Angles,” 1979), internal and external forms (“Large Totem Head,” 1968) and interlocking forms (“Hill Arches,” 1973).
“These were all ideas that Moore returned to again and again throughout his career,” Feldman said, “and they’re all represented in this exhibition.”
Feldman and David Mitchinson, the foundation’s head of collections and exhibitions, spent days walking the gardens at both the York Street and Chatfield locations, deciding where each of the 20 pieces would be placed, and their choices are unassailable.
“Some sites will speak to you immediately, and you say, ‘I know exactly what will work there, and that has to go there,'” Feldman said. “And after that, you sort of fill in the gaps.”
Some of the locations are prominent and obvious, such as the plaza in front of the Boettcher Memorial Center, but other pieces come as a surprise, as a visitor turns a corner or enters a new section of the gardens.
At least one other sculpture is usually visible from each site, setting up fascinating visual dialogues and striking vistas that constantly change as visitors move around the gardens.
Art in nature. Henry Moore made it a transcendant combination.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
“Moore in the Gardens.”
Art. Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York St. The Denver Botanic Gardens presents an exhibition of 20 monumental outdoor works by celebrated English sculptor Henry Moore, as well as a selection of his maquettes. March 8 through Jan. 31, 2011; members-only preview, 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, March 1.. Through May 9 and Sept. 13 through Jan. 31, 2011: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; May 10 through Sept. 12: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays through Tuesdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays. Through May 9 and Sept. 13 through Jan. 31, 2011: $11.50, $8,50 seniors, military personnel, $8 students and youth; May 10 through Sept 12: $12.50, $9.50 seniors and military personnel, $9 students and youth. 720-865-3500 or .
