Disc with Strings (Sun)

Having dedicated the first two decades of her career to "direct carving" in stone and wood, Hepworth turned to bronze relatively late. She began to have works cast in bronze during the late 1950s and quickly discovered that the versatility and strength of this medium considerably broadened both the range and scale of her work. Taking inspiration from her longtime friend Henry Moore, Hepworth also adopted bronze as a means to facilitate the dispersal of her work around the world. The present work demonstrates Hepworth's masterful ability to achieve equilibrium between the demands of this new material and its expressive possibilities. Commenting on her recent production in 1962, the artist stated: "Certain forms, I find, re-occur during one's lifetime and I have found some considerable pleasure in reinterpreting forms originally carved, and which in bronze, by greater attenuation, can give a new aspect to certain themes" (quoted in Barbara Hepworth, exh. cat., IVAM, Valencia, 2004, p. 137).
Using strings allowed Hepworth to introduce dynamic shapes into her work, and to explore the relationship of the space between the forms. Hepworth had begun this practice in 1939 and, while it was certainly influenced by Moore's strung works of the late 1930s, the work of Naum Gabo was more significant. Gabo and Hepworth were particularly close during the 1930s and 1940s, and like Gabo's use of nylon thread, Hepworth's use of string can be related to her interest in mathematical models. This interest was shared with many artists during the 1930s, whose use of them for artistic purposes reflected a desire for a modernist synthesis of science and art. However, as time went on, Hepworth's use of string moved away from purely modernist principles and became better associated with her growing consciousness of the landscape: "The strings were the tension I felt between myself and the sea, the wind or the hills," she claimed (quoted in H. Read, Barbara Hepworth: Carvings and Drawings, London, 1952).