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Lot Essay
'The importance of light in relation to form will always interest me ... Light gives full play to our tactile perceptions through the experience of our eyes' Barbara Hepworth
Horizontal Form represents Hepworth’s captivation with a distinctly polished, unpatinated bronze characterised by a luxurious golden finish during the late 1950s. This finish is akin to the exotic coloured stones and highly finished marble and slate carvings she was also making at this time. Conceived in 1969, Horizontal Form (BH 468), is most closely related to a similarly-scaled bronze, again with a highly polished surface, Vertical Form (St Ives) in the collection of the Barbara Hepworth Museum (BH 495). Both sculptures were cast from a lignum vitae unique carving, and were conceived in 1968 and cast in 1969 by the Morris Singer Foundry.
Matthew Gale and Chris Stephens discuss these two works, 'The original Vertical Wood Form is of lignum vitae, a very hard wood which had been especially favoured by the artist since the 1920s. It may be coupled with Horizontal Form, which is the same size, though horizontal, and has a similar shape. Like the vertical piece, Horizontal Form was also carved from lignum and the pattern of the grain suggests that the two works may have been opposing halves of a single block. This would be consistent with the artist's preference, especially at that time, for an economy of means and materials ... the bronze cast from it reflects the gradual simplification of some of Hepworth's sculpture during the 1960s. In particular, she abandoned the spiralling hole... for a simple cylindrical opening... [which] unites the spaces in front of and behind the sculpture' (M. Gale and C. Stephens, Barbara Hepworth Works in the Tate Gallery Collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St Ives, London, 1999, p. 243).
In the wake of her revered commission for the United Nations headquarters in New York and being made a trustee of the Tate Gallery during the 1960s, by 1968 Hepworth had achieved a highly competent and mature style. Indeed, at this time Hepworth was experimenting with new materials in order to produce larger works for casting. Horizontal Form was conceived in the wake of all this success, at a time when Hepworth was continuing to experiment, tying early themes with new ideas and materials in her work.
For example, the piercing of the form represents a central strand of Hepworth’s sculptural vocabulary, introduced in her Pierced Form, 1932 (BH 35). Horizontal Form’s highly polished surface allows its curvatures to reflect across its surface, drawing us through the pierced hole, and emphasising the volumetric dynamism of its form. It is in sculptures such as Horizontal Form that we see the culmination of Hepworth’s artistic vision.
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.
Horizontal Form represents Hepworth’s captivation with a distinctly polished, unpatinated bronze characterised by a luxurious golden finish during the late 1950s. This finish is akin to the exotic coloured stones and highly finished marble and slate carvings she was also making at this time. Conceived in 1969, Horizontal Form (BH 468), is most closely related to a similarly-scaled bronze, again with a highly polished surface, Vertical Form (St Ives) in the collection of the Barbara Hepworth Museum (BH 495). Both sculptures were cast from a lignum vitae unique carving, and were conceived in 1968 and cast in 1969 by the Morris Singer Foundry.
Matthew Gale and Chris Stephens discuss these two works, 'The original Vertical Wood Form is of lignum vitae, a very hard wood which had been especially favoured by the artist since the 1920s. It may be coupled with Horizontal Form, which is the same size, though horizontal, and has a similar shape. Like the vertical piece, Horizontal Form was also carved from lignum and the pattern of the grain suggests that the two works may have been opposing halves of a single block. This would be consistent with the artist's preference, especially at that time, for an economy of means and materials ... the bronze cast from it reflects the gradual simplification of some of Hepworth's sculpture during the 1960s. In particular, she abandoned the spiralling hole... for a simple cylindrical opening... [which] unites the spaces in front of and behind the sculpture' (M. Gale and C. Stephens, Barbara Hepworth Works in the Tate Gallery Collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St Ives, London, 1999, p. 243).
In the wake of her revered commission for the United Nations headquarters in New York and being made a trustee of the Tate Gallery during the 1960s, by 1968 Hepworth had achieved a highly competent and mature style. Indeed, at this time Hepworth was experimenting with new materials in order to produce larger works for casting. Horizontal Form was conceived in the wake of all this success, at a time when Hepworth was continuing to experiment, tying early themes with new ideas and materials in her work.
For example, the piercing of the form represents a central strand of Hepworth’s sculptural vocabulary, introduced in her Pierced Form, 1932 (BH 35). Horizontal Form’s highly polished surface allows its curvatures to reflect across its surface, drawing us through the pierced hole, and emphasising the volumetric dynamism of its form. It is in sculptures such as Horizontal Form that we see the culmination of Hepworth’s artistic vision.
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.