Henry Moore Works in Public
This is a guide to Moore's sculptures on public display throughout the world. We strive to ensure that all information is accurate, however we recommend that you contact each venue before making a visit. Please also contact us if you spot any mistakes. In some instances it has not been possible to source an image of the actual sculpture in-situ, and on such occasions an alternative image has been used.
Otterlo
Kroller-Muller Museum
bronze
height 335.5cm
In 1955 I was asked to consider making a sculpture for a courtyard of a new building [Olivetti] in Milan. I visited the site and a lone Lombardy poplar growing behind the building convinced me that a vertical work would act as the correct counterfoil to the horizontal rhythm of the building. This idea grew ultimately into the ‘Upright Motifs’.
Back home in England I began the series of maquettes. – I started balancing different forms one above the other, - with results rather like the North-West American totem poles, - but as I continued the attempt gained more unity, also perhaps more organic, - and then one in particular (later to be named ‘Glenkiln Cross’), took on the shape of a crucifix, - a kind of worn down body and a cross merged into one.
Quoted in Henry Moore: Drie Staande Motievan, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo 1965