Leeds sculpture collection
Together, Leeds Art Gallery and the Henry Moore Institute have built one of the strongest public collections of British sculpture in the UK.
Alfred Gilbert 'Perseus Arming' (1882 (cast 1910), bronze)
Courtesy Leeds Museums and Galleries. Bequeathed by Sam Wilson, 1925
Henry Moore, 'Reclining Figure' (1929, Horton stone)
Courtesy Henry Moore Foundation and Leeds Museums and Galleries. Purchased with the aid of a grant from the Board of Education, 1941
The collections are on display next door to us in Leeds Art Gallery, where the Institute curates the sculpture displays. We also oversee the administration and development of the collections on behalf of Leeds Museums and Galleries.
Works from the Leeds Sculpture Collection are also displayed at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, country houses on the outskirts of Leeds that are a part of the Leeds Museums and Galleries.
Today the Leeds sculpture collections comprise over 800 objects and 400 works on paper, as well as our outstanding Archive of Sculptors' Papers. They narrate the development of sculpture being made in Britain as broadly as possible, representing neglected practitioners as well as established ones.
In recent years there has been a particular focus on conceptual, performance, photographic and other expanded sculptural forms from the 1960s and 70s, which are underrepresented in museum collections of sculpture.