Helmet Head No.4: Interior-Exterior
- Artist: Henry Moore OM, CH
- Date: 1963, cast date unknown
- Medium: Bronze
- Dimensions: object: 552 x 346 x 391 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is “Helmet Head No. 4: Interior‑Exterior” by Henry Moore OM, CH. The piece is a bronze cast from 1963, about 55 cm wide and 39 cm tall – large enough to sit comfortably in front of the viewer.
Moore conceived a series where a hard outer “helmet” shell encloses a smaller, contrasting head form inside. In his own words he says that “the idea of one form inside another… may owe some of its incipient beginnings to my interest at one stage when I discovered armour.” He spent many hours in the Wallace Collection looking at armours, and that fascination shows up here as a sculptural dialogue between exterior and interior.
The sculpture plays with depth: the outer shell is an open‑ended silhouette, while the inner head suggests a softer volume. It’s not meant to be literal – it is an abstract development of the mother‑and‑child motif found throughout his work. The hollow space invites light to fall in, giving the piece a breath of motion even when standing still.
It sits in the Modern and Contemporary British Art section, reminding us that the simple gesture of a helmet can become a poetic exploration of form inside form.
See it in person
Helmet Head No.4: Interior-Exterior is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
