What's in the research library?
The library contains over 30,000 books, with a particularly strong focus on British sculptors.
We also have unique collections of artists’ books, sculptors’ ephemera and audio visual recordings.
See it all at your leisure in our two beautifully appointed reading rooms.
Books & exhibition catalogues
We have over 30,000 books on sculpture in the library.
One room is dedicated entirely to British sculptors, with a second covering sculptors internationally. A separate section explores sculpture thematically.
Our collections are for reference only. We do not lend books out.
Art journals
The latest issue of over 30 current art journals are available to browse in the reading rooms.
We have extensive back issues available from the many specialist journals we hold, available on request.
Journals we have include:
Afterall, Art Monthly, Art Newspaper, Art Libraries Journal, Art Review, Burlington, Church Monuments, Flash Art, Frieze Magazine, The Medal, New Arcadian Journal, October, Oxford Art Journal, Sculpture, Sculptures: Etudes sur la Sculpture, Sculpture Journal, Sculpture Review, Victorian Society, Visual Culture in Britain, Walpole society.
Please contact the library in 24 hours in advance if you wish to consult closed access material (including Special Collections and Journals).
Artists’ files
As well as books, catalogues and journals, we collect exhibition invitations, press cuttings and other ephemera on British sculptors.
You can check whether we have a file on a particular sculptor by searching the library catalogue.
Audio-visual library
Browse our extensive image, film and sound collections.
We have recordings of our past conferences and events, as well as a selection of documentaries on artists, which you can watch in our dedicated AV room.
The library also features an extensive collection of slide images, housed in purpose-built display units, that depict artworks, exhibitions and events from throughout the Foundation’s history.
Artists’ Lives project
National Life Stories was established in 1987 to document the lives of people living in Britain. Housed at the British Library, the Artists’ Lives series provides a unique resource for those exploring the lives of artists within the wider context of British society.
Our partnership with National Life Stories provides access to a number of interviews with sculptors, including Ivor Abrahams, Ralph Brown, Stephen Cox, Elisabeth Frink and Eduardo Paolozzi. The interviews offer an insight into a sculptor’s upbringing, their academic and working practices, while exploring the artist’s views on wider culture and society.
Research databases
We subscribe to a number of key online databases such as JSTOR and Art Full Text. These are available to consult from within the library, to help you find articles beyond our collections.
From the library you can also access our database to find images, audio and video resources. We have comprehensive records of past exhibitions and events held at the Henry Moore Institute and the Henry Moore Studio at Dean Clough (1989-2001). You can also find out more about public sculpture and works held in the Leeds Museums & Galleries Collections.
Please note these databases are only accessible from the Henry Moore Institute’s research library.
Henry Moore Institute Digital Library
Database containing images, audio and video resources of:
- Henry Moore Institute exhibitions and events;
- exhibitions held at the Henry Moore Studio at Dean Clough 1989-2001;
- works held in Leeds Museums & Galleries Sculpture Collection (including works on paper);
- public sculpture;
- works by British sculptors.
EBSCO
Access to Art & Architecture Complete and Art Full Text. Includes online access to journal articles.
JSTOR
A full-text database of journal articles, including Art Journal, Burlington Magazine, October (1976-2011) and Oxford Art Journal.
October
October focuses critical attention on the contemporary arts – film, painting, music, media, photography, performance, sculpture, and literature – and their various contexts of interpretation.
Full-text access from 2001 to the present day.
Sculpture Journal
Britain’s foremost scholarly journal devoted to sculpture in all its aspects from prehistory to the present across the globe.
Sculpture Journal provides an international forum for writers and scholars in the field of sculpture and public commemorative monuments, extending to commissions for contemporary sculpture.
Sculpture, Monuments and Open Space
(Known previously as Sculpture Review.)
Dedicated to the advancement, development and appreciation of realist sculpture.
This journal shows the various ways in which sculptors worldwide and throughout time have worked to express themselves in various media.
Full-text access from 1999 to the present day.
Visual Culture in Britain
Exploring the generative interrelations between visual culture, individuals, and societies in Britain, both historically and today.
This journal publishes new peer-reviewed scholarship that investigates the forms, spaces, processes, and politics through which visual worlds/materials are made meaningful, and examines their effects within an expanded and unsettled concept of ‘Britishness’.
Full text access from Vol. 10 (2009) to the present day.
Online research resources
Collaboration is at the heart of our research programme.
We have jointly funded and collaborated in a number of initiatives intended to consolidate primary resources for the study of sculpture.
Visit us
Henry Moore Institute
74 The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AH
United Kingdom
T: 01132 467 467
E: institute@henry-moore.org
