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Henry Moore Studios & Gardens in Hertfordshire is currently closed for winter, reopening in April 2025.

Henry Moore Institute in Leeds will be closed over Christmas from 23 to 26 December and 30 December to 1 January (library and archive closed from 23 December to 1 January).

See & Do

Discussion

Egon Altdorf: Dorian Crone and Catherine Croft in Conversation

18:00–19:00

Henry Moore Institute, Leeds

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This in-conversation is programmed alongside our current exhibition Egon Altdorf. It will focus on the fascinating narrative of Altdorf’s son Dorian Crone’s rediscovery of a significant amount of his father’s oeuvre and archive, as well as Altdorf’s history of architectural collaborations.

Following his father’s death in 2008, Crone discovered a large amount of material was located in the collection of an art dealer formerly based in Wiesbaden, Germany, where the artist spent the majority of his later life. Upon learning of its neglected state, Crone purchased the work in an effort to bring Altdorf’s legacy together.

As well as making sculpture, woodcuts and works on paper and writing poetry, Altdorf frequently collaborated on architectural projects. Between 1966 and 1983 he designed furnishings and glass for the interior of a new synagogue in Wiesbaden’s Friedrichstrasse, a building considered to be one of the finest post-war examples of synagogue architecture in Germany.

Other commissions include glass for a cemetery chapel in Wambach (1972), the painted interior and the exterior scheme for a sports hall in Saulheim (1973) and works innovatively combining sculpture and wall-painting.

A research project led by Dr Judith LeGrove has resulted in exhibitions in Wiesbaden and the UK, a book published in German and English (Into the Light: The Art of Egon Altdorf) and a forthcoming illustrated edition of Altdorf’s poetry (Egon Altdorf: Poems + Images).

Join Altdorf’s son Dorian Crone and architectural historian and author Catherine Croft as they discuss the life and legacy of a previously overlooked artist.

Tickets

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About the speakers

Dorian Crone (left) with Egon Altdorf

Dorian Crone

Dorian Crone is a Chartered Architect and Chartered Town Planner. He has been a member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation for 25 years.

Crone is a committee member of The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, the International Committee on Monuments and Sites, ICOMOS UK and the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. He has worked for over 30 years as Historic Buildings and Areas Inspector with English Heritage, responsible for providing advice to all the London Boroughs and both the City Councils.

He has worked as a consultant and expert witness for over 20 years advising a wide variety of clients on heritage and design matters involving development work, alterations, extensions and new build projects associated with listed buildings and conservation areas in design and heritage sensitive locations.

Crone is a panel member of the John Betjeman Design Award and the City of London Heritage Award and is on a number of Design Review Panels in several London Boroughs, the Design Council and Design Southwest.

In addition, he has been involved with the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Architectural Awards and the Philip Webb Award along with a number of other public sector and commercial design awards.

Catherine Croft

Catherine Croft is a noted authority on post-war architecture and as Director of C20 Society since 2002 has led the charge in protecting, and changing public perceptions, of our twentieth century heritage.

Author of a book on Concrete Architecture, Catherine also writes on contemporary and historic buildings and teaches a course on professional concrete conservation at West Dean College. She lectures to post graduate building conservation students throughout the UK, with RIBA and internationally with Getty, and is an alumni of the Architectural Association course. Croft read Architecture at Cambridge University, and did an MA in Material Culture & Architectural History in the USA, where she held a fellowship on the Winterthur Program at the University of Delaware. Prior to C20 Society she worked for English Heritage as a buildings inspector in London and the Midlands.

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