Henry Moore at Kew

Kew Gardens are worth a visit at any time of the year, and can be as beautiful in the autumn and winter - especially if the weather is kind - as in the spring and summer. Until 30th March 2008 Kew offers the additional attraction of a major exhibition of 28 sculptures by Henry Moore displayed throughout the north- east sector of the gardens (www.kew.org/henry-moore). The last time I saw so many of Moore's works together was at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence in 1972, 14 years before the sculptor's death in 1986 at the age of 88. My memory is that many of the pieces then on display were in travertine or marble, materials fine outside in Italy but not suited to the English climate; all the pieces now on display at Kew, with one exception, are of bronze. The photographs in the catalogue and illustrating the background exhibition in the Nash Conservatory indicate how well Moore's art travels. Although his English, and more specifically Yorkshire, background fed his art there is nothing insular or parochial about his works: his Seated Woman looks as good and as timeless when seen against the background of a lake in Beijing as she does in a grassy clearing at Kew. The pieces on display are on loan from the Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green, Herts, where, as at Kew, they are displayed against a background of grass and trees. Other copies are to be found in public and private locations all round the world. Moore drew on, and drew, natural organic forms, and the characteristics of his drawings, which have both a solid roundness and a scratchy and complex surface texture, are carried through into his sculptures and castings. They don't all work for me. The Wall: Background for Sculpture and the series called Upright Motive leave me uninvolved. The 9m-long Large Reclining Figure looks good in photographs and across the Palm House lake, but its smooth white fibreglass surface is rather unpleasant close up. But others are quite wonderful, especially the two-part sculptures, which are monumental, dynamic and intimate according to how one chooses to view them.