Image: Iwate Museum of Art, Morioka
Iwate Museum of Art in Morioka is drawing attention to one of its outdoor works, Henry Moore’s 'Two-Piece Reclining Figure: Cut', in a staff message that also points to a forthcoming exhibition centered on the sculptor. The museum’s director, Osanai Tsutomu, writes about the bronze as a work long associated with Moore’s signature reclining-figure theme and says it is currently being displayed in the museum’s outdoor exhibition space on long-term loan from Itochu Corporation, which owns the piece.
The museum’s text places the sculpture in the context of the director’s own history with Moore, recalling an early encounter with the artist’s work at the Hakone Open-Air Museum about 45 years ago, when he was studying sculpture. In the message, Moore is described as a major 20th-century British sculptor and the reclining figure as one of his central subjects. The director also notes that, in earlier years, access to art depended on visiting exhibitions or consulting books and exhibition catalogues, a contrast he uses to frame the value of direct encounter with sculpture.
A central point of the museum note is that the impression of sculpture changes with its environment, as well as with the season and time of day. The director says revisiting Moore’s work in the museum setting made him newly aware of those shifts. He describes the work’s organic curves, generous volume and rhythmic form as appearing especially vivid against the museum’s architecture and the neatly laid white granite and tile surfaces surrounding it. That, he says, creates a different relationship from the one he first experienced at Hakone, where the work blended with a natural mountain landscape.
The text argues strongly for seeing sculpture in person rather than through images or video, saying that the changes in atmosphere and spatial relationship cannot be fully conveyed online. It encourages visitors to view the work repeatedly and at different times, in order to experience those variations directly. The statement appears as part of the museum’s ‘From Staff’ series, functioning as an institutional reflection rather than an exhibition review or formal curatorial essay.
Alongside the outdoor display, the museum says it will present a planned special exhibition, 'Henry Moore', from 21 November to 13 December 2026. The notice says the exhibition will focus mainly on works from the Sculpture of the Forest Museum collection. No further details are given in the source text about the checklist, installation approach or accompanying programmes, but the museum’s announcement clearly links the forthcoming show to the same sculptor whose bronze is now on view outdoors.
