That attraction to nature has inspired Britons to visit permanent sculpture venues for decades. Some of the best-loved include Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where pieces by major international names are displayed in the rolling hills of northern England; the intimate Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St. Ives in Cornwall; and Ian Hamilton Finlay’s quirky Little Sparta garden some 25 miles southwest of Edinburgh, which uses stone carving to explore historical and philosophical themes.
In both those venues and newer ones, the distinctively English tradition of Picturesque landscape gardening — a more naturalistic gardening style that emerged as a sort of counterpoint to the formal geometry of gardens like Versailles — continues to shape how open-air sculpture is exhibited in Britain. For instance, Kew Gardens got a Picturesque makeover in the 1760s. The resulting network of winding paths, humps, hollows, woods and vistas provides a suitably varied setting for “Monumental Nature,” which is among the largest outdoor presentations of Moore’s work.
“The pieces aren’t plonked in the landscape,” said Paul Denton, Kew’s director of creative programming and exhibitions, in an interview on the back of a golf cart-like buggy, touring the show.
“It was a very thoughtful process,” Denton added. “You get a glimpse of one in the distance. You see relationships between works. You see pieces between trees or in large vistas. It helps visitors to see the gardens in a different way.”
The show also offers a fresh take on Moore. During his long, successful career, the artist dominated the 20th-century British sculpture scene. He became an establishment figure, his works featured in museum collections around the world (On its website, MoMA lists no fewer than 59 Moore sculptures and works on paper in its collection.) But in later years, Moore’s pieces, made in different sizes and series, could look formulaic and repetitive, particularly in urban environments.
But here in the idyllic, green setting of Kew Gardens, 40 years after Moore’s death, these monumental creations can be seen afresh. Glimpsing “Large Two Forms” (1969) in the distance through the apertures of “Double Oval” is a memorable sight — different from what you might see in a museum. So too is the vision of the enormous white fiberglass “Large Reclining Figure” (1983) playfully lounging on the grass in front of Kew’s 18th-century Chinese-style Great Pagoda.
