The Henry Moore Foundation has opened 'The Art and Life of Henry Moore' in the newly opened Sheep Field Barn Gallery at Henry Moore Studios & Gardens in Hertfordshire. The exhibition presents more than eighty sculptures made between 1922 and 1986, alongside photographs and archival materials drawn from the Henry Moore Foundation Collections. It is presented as a permanent introduction to Moore’s career within a reimagined gallery space at Perry Green, the artist’s former home and workplace.
According to the Foundation, Sheep Field Barn has been redesigned as a welcoming place to explore Moore’s life and work at the heart of the landscape he shaped. The gallery now combines a permanent exhibition with a changing programme focused on key themes in Moore’s practice, and also includes dedicated learning and making spaces. The site is positioned as the Henry Moore Foundation’s largest and most comprehensive collection of Moore’s work, set within the artist’s home, studios and surrounding grounds.
The exhibition foregrounds Moore’s sculptural development across more than six decades, with works spanning his early career through to the 1980s. The display is supported by photographs and archival material that help trace the artist’s process and working life. The Foundation says the presentation is designed to show how Moore’s practice evolved over time while remaining closely connected to the materials, forms and ideas that recur throughout his sculpture.
A separate 2026 display within the same gallery focuses on Moore’s 'Shelter Drawings', created during the Second World War. The Foundation describes these drawings as among the most powerful and widely recognised works of Moore’s career. Their inclusion links the exhibition to a key period in Moore’s output and to one of the best-known bodies of work associated with his name.
The museum context at Sheep Field Barn also extends beyond the galleries. Henry Moore Studios & Gardens describes the wider site as including more than 70 acres of gardens and rolling fields, along with six studios preserved as Moore would have used them in his lifetime. The Archive, meanwhile, is described as a leading resource on Moore’s life and work, containing publications, photographs, correspondence and exhibition material, and is open by appointment.
The Foundation is also using the exhibition launch as a focus for a programme of related talks and workshops during the 2026 visitor season. Among them is a curator-led 'Sculpture Gardens Tour' on the last Wednesday of each month, which looks at the twenty-one sculptures on display across the grounds and discusses Moore’s process, the stories behind the works, and their inspiration and concepts.
Other activities announced for the season include 'Collaborative Carving', a drop-in workshop in the Learning Studios at Sheep Field Barn from 29 to 31 July, and 'A creative family celebration for Henry Moore’s birthday' on 30 July. 'Summer Makers' runs on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays throughout August. Henry Moore Studios & Gardens says its 2026 visitor season runs from 1 April to 25 October, with opening hours Wednesday to Sunday and on Bank Holidays, 11:00 to 17:00.
