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Lot Essay
Conceived in 1961, Two Forms in Echelon is a refined example of Barbara Hepworth’s mature oeuvre, its softly rounded forms and intriguing play of negative space showcasing the dynamism and elegance of her abstract idiom. The early 1960s was a period of great productivity and professional success for Hepworth, marked by major exhibitions, academic honors, and a number of public commissions, which brought her work to a large international audience. In June 1964, her largest and most significant public project, the monumental Single Form (BH 325; 1961-1963) for the United Nations Secretariat in New York, was unveiled. At the same time, her unique sculptural language continued to expand and evolve in bold new directions, exploring complex variations of form across a range of materials, from wood and marble, to slate and bronze.
At its core, Two Forms in Echelon explores one of the principal subjects that occupied the artist repeatedly through her career—the intricate tensions and relationships that arise from two forms placed in close proximity to one another. Hepworth returned to this theme time and again, experimenting with different shapes, expanding and contracting the space between her forms, to generate different tensions and correspondences. For Hepworth, these pairings represented “the tender relationship of one living thing beside another,” imbuing her abstract forms with a sense of profound connection (quoted in Barbara Hepworth Retrospective, 1927-1954, exh. cat., Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1954, p. 10). Here, she explores the concept through two upright forms, placed side-by-side on a rectangular base, a carefully measured sliver of space visible between them. There is an intrinsically organic quality to Two Forms in Echelon, as the curves and contours of the finished sculpture recall that of a pebble or stone found on the shoreline. Hepworth was fascinated by the formal qualities of the organic material she discovered and collected on her beach walks along the English coast, especially their unexpected shapes and surfaces, and actively sought to translate this into her carved and modelled forms.
Hepworth’s choice of title, meanwhile, draws the viewer’s attention to the alignment of the two elements. The word echelon calls to mind military formations, in which a succession of parallel rows are arranged so that each one projects slightly further into space than the one prior, resulting in a stepped configuration. The term first made its appearance in Hepworth’s work in relation to a two-piece wooden carving of 1935, Discs in Echelon (The Museum of Modern Art, New York), where the small, circular forms are placed in close parallel to one another. Hepworth clearly felt the finished piece was a significant achievement—when Discs in Echelon was gifted to The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1936 by the Sheffield-based collector, W.B. Bennett, the artist arranged for a plaster cast to be taken from the wooden sculpture prior to its move across the Atlantic. She continued to delve into the visual potentials of the subject through the ensuing decades—here, the term accentuates the space between the two forms, animating the gap between them and emphasizing their connection to one another as an interrelated pair.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of Two Forms in Echelon are the large, ovoid punctuations on each side of both forms, which transform our view of the sculpture. By piercing the mass in this way, Hepworth allows light to circulate around and within the piece, enlivening the interior of the form and setting up a sequence of captivating vistas through the body of the work that frame the surrounding landscape. With these apertures, Hepworth appears to invoke the striking ancient menhirs and prehistoric stone monuments she had first encountered following her move to the Cornish coast in 1939. As Hepworth recalled, “I gradually discovered the remarkable pagan landscape which lies between St Ives, Penzance and Land’s End: a landscape which still has a very deep effect on me, developing all my ideas about the relationship of the human figure in landscape—sculpture in landscape and the essential quality of light in relation to sculpture…” (quoted in H. Read, Barbara Hepworth: Carvings and Drawings, London, 1952, n.p.). In particular, Two Forms in Echelon appears to invoke the mysterious forms of the Bronze Age megalithic monument known as Mên-an-tol, situated between St Ives and Land’s End, where the central stone boasts a carefully carved hole.
Cast in an edition of seven, the present example of Two Forms in Echelon was formerly in the collection of Lee A. Kolker, before being acquired by Mr. Saltzman. Other examples of the work can be found at The Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth, at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch, and in the collection of the University of Southampton.
At its core, Two Forms in Echelon explores one of the principal subjects that occupied the artist repeatedly through her career—the intricate tensions and relationships that arise from two forms placed in close proximity to one another. Hepworth returned to this theme time and again, experimenting with different shapes, expanding and contracting the space between her forms, to generate different tensions and correspondences. For Hepworth, these pairings represented “the tender relationship of one living thing beside another,” imbuing her abstract forms with a sense of profound connection (quoted in Barbara Hepworth Retrospective, 1927-1954, exh. cat., Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1954, p. 10). Here, she explores the concept through two upright forms, placed side-by-side on a rectangular base, a carefully measured sliver of space visible between them. There is an intrinsically organic quality to Two Forms in Echelon, as the curves and contours of the finished sculpture recall that of a pebble or stone found on the shoreline. Hepworth was fascinated by the formal qualities of the organic material she discovered and collected on her beach walks along the English coast, especially their unexpected shapes and surfaces, and actively sought to translate this into her carved and modelled forms.
Hepworth’s choice of title, meanwhile, draws the viewer’s attention to the alignment of the two elements. The word echelon calls to mind military formations, in which a succession of parallel rows are arranged so that each one projects slightly further into space than the one prior, resulting in a stepped configuration. The term first made its appearance in Hepworth’s work in relation to a two-piece wooden carving of 1935, Discs in Echelon (The Museum of Modern Art, New York), where the small, circular forms are placed in close parallel to one another. Hepworth clearly felt the finished piece was a significant achievement—when Discs in Echelon was gifted to The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1936 by the Sheffield-based collector, W.B. Bennett, the artist arranged for a plaster cast to be taken from the wooden sculpture prior to its move across the Atlantic. She continued to delve into the visual potentials of the subject through the ensuing decades—here, the term accentuates the space between the two forms, animating the gap between them and emphasizing their connection to one another as an interrelated pair.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of Two Forms in Echelon are the large, ovoid punctuations on each side of both forms, which transform our view of the sculpture. By piercing the mass in this way, Hepworth allows light to circulate around and within the piece, enlivening the interior of the form and setting up a sequence of captivating vistas through the body of the work that frame the surrounding landscape. With these apertures, Hepworth appears to invoke the striking ancient menhirs and prehistoric stone monuments she had first encountered following her move to the Cornish coast in 1939. As Hepworth recalled, “I gradually discovered the remarkable pagan landscape which lies between St Ives, Penzance and Land’s End: a landscape which still has a very deep effect on me, developing all my ideas about the relationship of the human figure in landscape—sculpture in landscape and the essential quality of light in relation to sculpture…” (quoted in H. Read, Barbara Hepworth: Carvings and Drawings, London, 1952, n.p.). In particular, Two Forms in Echelon appears to invoke the mysterious forms of the Bronze Age megalithic monument known as Mên-an-tol, situated between St Ives and Land’s End, where the central stone boasts a carefully carved hole.
Cast in an edition of seven, the present example of Two Forms in Echelon was formerly in the collection of Lee A. Kolker, before being acquired by Mr. Saltzman. Other examples of the work can be found at The Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth, at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch, and in the collection of the University of Southampton.