Henriette Sling-Bag

Inspired by Henry Moore

“Sculpture is an art of the open air,” he said about Hakone Open Air Gallery, Japan.

Henry Moore is one of the best-known and most popular 20th-century sculptors in Japan. Yasuyoshi Saito, a curator at the Tokyo Municipal Museum, organized a Moore exhibition held just before the artist's death last August. The show, which also toured the southern city of Fukuoka, attracted more than 100,000 visitors, a record-breaking crowd for a sculpture exhibition.

''The themes of his sculptures, such as mother and child, appeal to Japanese sentiments. Henry Moore seems to be regarded as the best for his celebrity status and for his philosophy toward nature, because his sculpture makes beautiful harmony with nature

Moore's huge forms resemble the stones that have long been the focal point of Zen gardens - an abstract art in which broad shapes and the irregular or weather-worn surface of the rocks themselves assume great importance.

'When I look at his sculptures, there is one characteristic - always in the center of his work is a human being or body. There may be an abstract or exaggerated way of expressing it, but you can always see it.''