The Modern Idol: Henry Moore in the Eastern Bloc

Conceived in a documentary format, the exhibition proposes a contextualisation of the Henry Moore exhibition taken on tour to Bucharest, Bratislava, Prague and Budapest in 1966–67. The exhibition is a collective research project, being initiated by art historians Alina Șerban (Bucharest), Daniel Véri (Budapest) and Lujza Kotočová (Prague) and contains a series of interviews with witnesses of the exhibition in Romania, the Czech Republic and Hungary: Ioana Vlasiu, art historian, Constantin Flondor, painter, Grigorie Minea, sculptor, Peter Jacobi, sculptor; Adéla Matasová, intermediate artist; György Jovánovics, sculptor, László Gyémánt, painter, Krisztina Passuth, art historian, Márta Kovalovszky & Péter Kovács, art historians. 

Considered, at the time, the largest international retrospective of the artist, the exhibition, organised by the British Council in cooperation with local authorities in Romania, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, the exhibition featured works—sculptures and drawings—spanning over five decades, from 1924 until 1964. The current research explores the stories of these shows in Bucharest, Bratislava, Prague and Budapest, investigating their role in taming the political tensions and the conflicting ideologies after 1960.

The exhibitions were the result of a cultural exchange programme with the Eastern Bloc managed by the British Council: in exchange for hosting Moore’s show, these countries had the possibility to organise similar events in the UK. The timeline presented in the current exhibition explores such bilateral connections between the UK and the three socialist countries. Furthermore, it highlights events related to Moore that took place in the Eastern Bloc (Poland, Bulgaria) and Yugoslavia.

The reception of Moore’s work was different in each of these contexts due to the specific artistic and political conditions and the varying degree of awareness towards Moore’s oeuvre, acquired earlier through official or unofficial channels. The discussions surrounding the exhibition did nonetheless offer evidence that the local artistic and cultural life was stimulated by Moore’s presence, in some cases shaping individual artistic careers or reinforcing ideas and tendencies already present within the cultural landscape of these countries in the 1960s. Accordingly, Moore’s exhibitions constituted a shared tool for both British and local authorities in their own cultural diplomacy.

Henry Moore’s touring exhibition represents an exceptional moment in the post-war history of exhibitions in the Eastern Bloc. Revisiting such an event from a transnational point of view can significantly contribute to the understanding of the intricacies of 1960s cultural politics.

curators: Lujza Kotočová, Alina Șerban, Daniel Véri

partners:

Bucharest, The Institute of the Present

Prague, Academic Research Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts

Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts – Central European Research Institute for Art History (KEMKI)