Site sought for sculpture

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33753, 28 January 1975, Page 16

Site sought for sculpture

The Christchurch City Council is seeking a suitable site for a bronze work by the sculptor, Henry Moore.

The sculpture, which is 12ft to 14ft high, had been offered to Canterbury because of Moore’s predisposition towards the region, and towards New Zealand, the director of the McDougall Art Gallery (Mr B. D. Muir) told the council’s cultural committee last evening.

New Zealand had few examples of his work — there were two small sculptures in the Auckland City Art Gallery — and the offer of the bronze might be the only chance the country would have to gain another of the artist’s works, he said. Although the sculpture had been offered first to Canterbury there was evidence that other regional centres were keen to acquire it, Mr Muir said.

The form is an abstract of a sheep, and Moore intended it to be erected in a rural context. Three sites have been sugested for it: the Port Hills, on a knoll beside the Summit Road, near the Sign of the Kiwi; Elizabeth Park, just above Cashmere; and on airport land opposite the Brevet Club. The Port Hills site is not favoured by the Regional Planning Authority because of a by-law protecting the road from any structure built within a 100 ft contour of the Summit Road. The cultural committee recommended that the representative of Henry Moore, when he came to Canterbury to select a possbile sit for the sculpture, choose any site he thought suitable. The Canterbury Society of Arts, through whom the work is being offered, and the Summit Road Advisory Committee would be invited to approve his choice. ___