Henry Moore Comes Home, an exhibition of prints by Henry Moore, one of the best-loved UK artists of the 20th century, opened at the British Council’s headquarters in London on 1 December 2015.

Henry Moore Comes Home builds on the two-year tour of another exhibition, Henry Moore – the Printmaker that previously visited Kazakhstan where it was on display at the A.Kasteev State Museum of Arts in Almaty from 27 January – 27 February 2014.

During the tour to Kazakhstan and six other countries, Henry Moore – the Printmaker was seen by a total of 80,000 people, and revealed personal stories of local artists, curators, visitors and museums that have been influenced by Henry Moore over the past seven decades. Henry Moore Comes Home explores the artist’s enduring international influence, as well as the main themes that can be found in Henry Moore’s graphics and sculpture.

Mastering the art of printmaking

As part of the educational programme around Henry Moore – the Printmaker, UK artist Sarah Gillett led printmaking workshops in Almaty in February 2014. We spoke to Sarah about her impressions about the Museum and the workshops:

“On an apple tree lined avenue in Almaty, the State Museum of Arts is a grand building showing the best of Kazakh fine art as well as sculpture and graphics of Soviet realism from the 1970s. I think Moore would have loved the museum and its ethnographic objects so it was the perfect venue for the Henry Moore exhibition and workshops.

The workshops explored one of Moore’s greatest fascinations: the relationship between the artist, the figure and the landscape.

It attracted the most diverse range of people of all the countries involved in the tour: art critics and journalists, professors, architects, costume designers, film producers, students, museum curators, teachers and artists. 

Students studied the Moore works and drew onto the paper carefully placed on top of sheets of inked plastic. We played with our results, cutting up and reassembling prints and drawings to make a series of Moore ‘pop-ups’, sculptural objects that we arranged together, photographed and posted onto Instagram.”

– from Sarah Gillett’s interview to the British Council, October 2015.
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