Adrian Stokes, Inside Out.

Who, confronted with the firm elasticity of Michelangelo’s David, would think to compare its curves to a well-sprung car? Who would take the removal of twigs concealing a bird on a nest as a figure for the master’s subtractive technique? The Henry Moore Institute's upcoming Autumn-Winter 2026 Research Season, Adrian Stokes, Inside Out, reckons with the idiosyncratic sculptural imagination of English critic Adrian Stokes (1902-72).

A key voice in mid twentieth-century sculptural and architectural criticism, Stokes uniquely combined a disparate set of compelling concerns: modernist values of direct carving, speculative psychoanalytic thought, a sensitivity to the vitality of natural materials, and a deep understanding of pre-modern sculpture in its continual reanimation. Taking as its starting point a re-engagement with Stokes’s writings about quattrocento relief, this season explores the generative potential of his distinctive critical metaphorics to address a wide range of sculptural phenomena.

The series has been conceived and organised in collaboration with Dr Ruth Ezra (University of St Andrews) and Dr Jeremy Melius (University of York).

For more information visit the Henry Moore website.