Henry Moore’s Monumental Nature Transforms Kew Gardens This Autumn
08 Oct 2026
The largest-ever outdoor exhibition of Henry Moore’s work brings monumental sculpture into dialogue with Kew Gardens’ changing landscape, alongside more than 90 rarely seen works, accessible programmes and a parallel presentation at Wakehurst.
8 October 2026 — London — Henry Moore’s lifelong fascination with landscape, natural forms and material is being revisited at Kew Gardens this autumn through Henry Moore: Monumental Nature, a major exhibition presented in partnership with the Henry Moore Foundation.
Running daily until 31 January 2027, the exhibition places 30 sculptures across Kew’s 320-acre landscape and inside the Temperate House, creating what organisers describe as the largest and most comprehensive outdoor presentation of Moore’s work to date.
The setting is central to the exhibition. Moore believed that sculpture was transformed by its relationship with landscape, and Kew’s autumn colours provide a changing natural backdrop for works including Double Oval, Large Interior Form, Spindle Piece and Oval with Points.
Rather than presenting sculpture as something separate from nature, Monumental Nature uses the Gardens themselves as part of the experience.
Sculpture in conversation with the landscape
Moore repeatedly drew inspiration from bones, stones, shells, trees and the human body, developing forms that feel simultaneously organic and architectural.
At Kew, that relationship becomes physical.
His bronzes appear among maidenhair trees, sawtooth oaks and Japanese maples, while the changing season alters how visitors encounter their surfaces, scale and silhouettes. Works placed near the Winter Garden and Shirley Sherwood Gallery gain a different character depending on light, weather and the surrounding vegetation.
Paul Denton, Director of Creative Programmes and Exhibitions at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said the arrival of autumn gives the exhibition another dimension.
The experience of exploring this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at Kew Gardens... will take on a completely different dimension.
He added that the seasonal colour offers visitors an opportunity to experience Moore’s work in the kind of natural setting the artist himself valued.
More than 90 works inside the Shirley Sherwood Gallery
The outdoor exhibition is complemented by a substantial presentation inside the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art.
More than 90 works are on display, including bronzes, stone and wood carvings, prints and drawings. The exhibition explores Moore’s process of “thinking through nature” and includes both major and lesser-known pieces, some of which are rarely seen by the public.
The gallery display culminates in a group of wooden sculptures that highlight Moore’s carving techniques and his interest in the physical properties of natural materials.
Works from Kew’s own collections are also shown alongside loans from major British institutions, including Tate and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.
This combination gives visitors a broader understanding of Moore’s practice beyond the monumental bronzes for which he is best known.
Thinking through nature
The exhibition’s title reflects something fundamental in Moore’s work.
Nature was not simply a source of visual inspiration. It was a way of thinking about form.
Curves, hollows, openings and weight repeatedly appear in his sculpture, creating works that seem shaped by erosion, growth or geological pressure rather than conventional modelling.
Sebastiano Barassi, Head of Henry Moore Collections & Programmes, said the seasonal context makes those connections particularly visible.
The inspiration which Moore took from the natural world resonates more than ever as the seasons change.
He noted that the shapes, textures and forms visible in the landscape can be traced through Moore’s wider body of work.
That dialogue between sculpture and nature may be one reason Moore’s work continues to feel contemporary decades after his death.
A new publication explores Moore through science and nature
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated book published by Kew Publishing.
Its contributors include curators, art historians, botanists, evolutionary biologists and other specialists, offering new ways of reading Moore’s work through contemporary ideas about nature, form and science.
A smaller guide to the 30 outdoor sculptures has also been produced for visitors.
The interdisciplinary approach reflects the setting itself. Kew is both a cultural institution and a scientific organisation, making it an unusual place from which to reconsider an artist so deeply interested in organic structure.
Making the exhibition more accessible
A significant part of Monumental Nature is its accessibility programme.
Kew has developed a dedicated Henry Moore Accessible Programme for visitors with sensory and access needs. This includes monthly touch tours for blind and partially sighted visitors, supported by audio description, as well as accessible trail maps, tactile Braille maps and an online visual guide that allows people to prepare for their visit in advance.
The accessible touch tours take place on the first Thursday of each month at 11:30am and require advance booking.
Every Tuesday, visitors can also join the gallery team for A Moment with Moore, a slower-looking session focused on a single work and the details or ideas that emerge through sustained observation.
£10 Tuesday entry continues through December
Kew is offering entry for £10 every Tuesday until 29 December 2026, making the exhibition more accessible during the autumn and early winter season.
Free 60-minute guided walking tours are available every day at 12:30pm and 2pm, while a family programme encourages younger visitors to explore selected sculptures using sight, touch and sound.
Two An Evening of Moore events are also scheduled for 14 October and 11 November in the Nash Conservatory, featuring discussions about Moore’s life, legacy and the curation of his work.
Contemporary responses at Wakehurst
The project extends beyond London.
At Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden in Sussex, a parallel exhibition titled Henry Moore and more brings together four Moore sculptures with contemporary work by Rana Begum, Rafael Pérez Evans and Paloma Varga Weisz.
The presentation runs until 23 May 2027 and has been curated in partnership with the Henry Moore Institute.
The contemporary artists respond differently to Wakehurst’s changing environment, but the shared theme is the human desire to connect with nature.
That makes the Sussex presentation less a retrospective extension and more a conversation between Moore’s legacy and contemporary sculpture.
Sculpture as something to encounter, not just observe
What makes Monumental Nature distinctive is the way it changes the conventional relationship between visitor and artwork.
Inside a gallery, sculpture is often encountered against controlled backgrounds and carefully designed lighting.
At Kew, the environment refuses to remain still.
Leaves change colour. Light shifts. Rain alters bronze surfaces. Trees partially obscure works from one direction and reveal them from another.
That instability suits Moore.
His sculptures were never entirely about isolated objects. They were about relationships: between mass and emptiness, body and landscape, material and space.
Kew’s exhibition allows those relationships to become visible on a monumental scale.
About the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a global centre for plant and fungal science, conservation, education and horticulture.
Kew Gardens is London’s largest UNESCO World Heritage Site, while Wakehurst in Sussex is home to the Millennium Seed Bank. Together, the two sites welcome more than 2.5 million visitors annually.
About the Henry Moore Foundation
The Henry Moore Foundation was established by Henry Moore and his family in 1977 to encourage public appreciation of the visual arts.
The Foundation preserves Moore’s legacy, supports sculpture projects internationally and operates Henry Moore Studios & Gardens in Hertfordshire and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds.
Exhibition information
Henry Moore: Monumental Nature runs at Kew Gardens until 31 January 2027 and is included with Garden entry. Free guided walking tours take place daily at 12:30pm and 2pm.
Henry Moore and more runs at Wakehurst until 23 May 2027 and is also included with Garden entry.
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Sara Srifi
Sara is a Software Engineering and Business student with a passion for astronomy, cultural studies, and human-centered storytelling. She explores the quiet intersections between science, identity, and imagination, reflecting on how space, art, and society shape the way we understand ourselves and the world around us. Her writing draws on curiosity and lived experience to bridge disciplines and spark dialogue across cultures.
