DAME BARBARA HEPWORTH (1903-1975)

Three oblique forms (February) forms part of a group of sculpture that occupied Hepworth in the second half of the 1960s. Several small-scale works were produced and these were subsequently worked up to form monumental sculptures, including Three Oblique Forms (Walk In), Four Square (Walk Through) and Two Forms (Divided Circle).

In these table-top sculptures, Hepworth continued to explore the relationship between man and the architectural environment, she was looking for something that the spectator might participate in, inhabit and touch: a reflection of her confrontation with mortality in her fight with cancer in 1965-66. This was certainly achieved through the monumental works, but also on a more intimate scale with the table-top pieces.

Hepworth's intention with these sculptures was to engage the viewer to use the prospects through the circles to frame nature and the world around. By using a highly polished finish to the bronze she was able to reflect, not only the circular holes in other positions on the sculpture, which provide an endlessly different perspective, but also a temptingly tactile jewel-like sculpture.

We are grateful to Dr Sophie Bowness for her assistance with the cataloguing apparatus for this work. Dr Sophie Bowness is preparing the revised catalogue raisonné of Hepworth’s sculpture.