Millbank is the location of Tate Britain and the Chelsea College of Arts; the latter institution's Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground is a large temporary exhibition space for the work of students and established artists.[1]
A plaster model was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1893 and cast in bronze, probably at the recommendation of Frederic, Lord Leighton. This was bought for the Tate the following year under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest. Initially displayed inside the gallery, it was moved to its present site in 1911, where the sculptor felt it was "swamped by heavy masonry".[2]
Originally stood by the entrance of the gallery. By 1961 Norman Reid, the Tate's director, considered the statue to have a "positively harmful" effect and attempted have it replaced by Rodin's sculpture of John the Baptist. In 2000 the statue was moved to the rear of the building after ownership was transferred from English Heritage to the Tate.[3]
Based on the Farnese Bull, a classical sculpture depicting the same subject. Presented to the Tate by the sculptor's widow in 1911. A second, larger version in marble is in the grounds of Rothamsted Manor, the sculptor's family estate in Hertfordshire.[4]
Originally installed at the Chelsea School of Art's newly built Manresa Road campus in 1964, Moore's sculpture took up residence at the college's current location in 2010.[5]
Unveiled 19 July 1968. Moore had never been satisfied with the setting of the piece on a multi-faceted plinth by a fountain; these features were removed and the gardens re-landscaped in 2003.[6]
Unveiled 16 October 2007, for Channel 4's 25th anniversary. The separate elements of the sculpture when seen from the right angle form the number 4, in the manner of the channel's idents. The bare steel structure was designed to be adapted by artists who would create their own "skins", thus constantly renewing the work.[9]
Unveiled 9 October 2011.[13] Two large, bronze heads in profile, shallow and hollowed-out with their faces upturned to the sky. The sculptor wished to comment on "the narrowness of consciousness, the vastness of time and the transience of humanity".[14] (See also another cast in Kinghtsbridge.)
Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011). Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1. Public Sculpture of Britain. Vol. 14. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN978-1-84631-691-3.