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Lot Essay
Single Form (Chûn Quoit) belongs formally with a series of bronzes all dated to 1961, and all included in Hepworth's exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in May 1962. They are related to one of Hepworth's most well-known and significant public commissions, the monumental Single Form (BH 325), which was installed in the plaza outside the United Nations Building in New York on 11 June 1964. The United Nations piece was commissioned by the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation as a memorial to Dag Hammarskjöld, Hepworth's close friend and Secretary General of the United Nations from 1953 until his tragic death in a plane crash in September 1961. In the address at the unveiling of her work in New York, Hepworth revealed:
'Dag Hammarskjöld spoke to me often about the evolution of the 'Single Form' in relation to compassion, and to courage and to our creativity. Dag Hammarskjöld had a pure and exact perception of aesthetic principles, as exact as it was over ethical and moral principles. I believe they were, to him, one and the same thing. Throughout my work on the Single Form I have kept in mind Dag Hammarskjöld's ideas of human and aesthetic ideology and I have tried to perfect a symbol that would reflect the nobility of his life and at the same time give us a motive and symbol of both continuity and solidarity for the future' (B. Hepworth quoted in A Pictorial Autobiography, London, 1985, p. 96).
Chûn Quoit is a Neolithic tomb towards St Just-in-Penwith in Cornwall and thus the title of the work evokes a local place for Hepworth. It is the only megalithic structure in the area to retain its capstone, and indeed the visual similarity between the present work and the form of the tomb itself has often been observed. Through her citation of this standing stone Hepworth invokes the history of the local countryside, but capturing the experience of continuity between her body and the natural environment also remains important. As Hepworth remarks:
'All landscape needs a figure - and when a sculptor is the spectator he is aware that every landscape evokes a special image. In creating this image the artist tries to find a synthesis of his human experience and the quality of the land-scape. The forms and piercings, the weight and poise of the concrete image also become evocative - a fusion of experience and myth' (B. Hepworth quoted in A. Bowness, A Pictorial Autobiography, London, 1985, p. 93).
For additional information about Hepworth's Single Form series and her relationship with Dag Hammarskjöld, please see lot 7.
'Dag Hammarskjöld spoke to me often about the evolution of the 'Single Form' in relation to compassion, and to courage and to our creativity. Dag Hammarskjöld had a pure and exact perception of aesthetic principles, as exact as it was over ethical and moral principles. I believe they were, to him, one and the same thing. Throughout my work on the Single Form I have kept in mind Dag Hammarskjöld's ideas of human and aesthetic ideology and I have tried to perfect a symbol that would reflect the nobility of his life and at the same time give us a motive and symbol of both continuity and solidarity for the future' (B. Hepworth quoted in A Pictorial Autobiography, London, 1985, p. 96).
Chûn Quoit is a Neolithic tomb towards St Just-in-Penwith in Cornwall and thus the title of the work evokes a local place for Hepworth. It is the only megalithic structure in the area to retain its capstone, and indeed the visual similarity between the present work and the form of the tomb itself has often been observed. Through her citation of this standing stone Hepworth invokes the history of the local countryside, but capturing the experience of continuity between her body and the natural environment also remains important. As Hepworth remarks:
'All landscape needs a figure - and when a sculptor is the spectator he is aware that every landscape evokes a special image. In creating this image the artist tries to find a synthesis of his human experience and the quality of the land-scape. The forms and piercings, the weight and poise of the concrete image also become evocative - a fusion of experience and myth' (B. Hepworth quoted in A. Bowness, A Pictorial Autobiography, London, 1985, p. 93).
For additional information about Hepworth's Single Form series and her relationship with Dag Hammarskjöld, please see lot 7.