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Lot Essay
For Hepworth, depicting the landscape, whether through painting, drawing, or sculpture, was an intuitive process, that she described as ‘a response to form, textures, and rhythms’ (A. Bowness, Barbara Hepworth, Drawings from a Sculptor’s Landscape, London, 1966, p. 10). Painted in the 1960s, Sea Form is one of these almost instinctual responses to the landscape, and evokes the windswept Porthmeor beaches overlooked by the artist’s studio. Alan Bowness describes how from this studio Hepworth was able to see the ‘movement of tides and the forms of the wave patterns on the sea-shore’ (A. Bowness, Barbara Hepworth Drawings from a Sculptor's Landscape, London, 1966, p. 25). These tidal and wave patterns are echoed in Hepworth’s rhythmic line work, and her rubbing of the blue pigments to reveal the primed surface beneath is reminiscent of the erosion of rock by the sea.
The intersecting lines that form the focal point of Sea Form, and draw the eye to the centre of the work, have a sculptural quality and create a sense of depth. Although Hepworth distanced herself from Constructivism in 1945, the line work calls to mind the work of her contemporaries in St Ives, such as Naum Gabo, who were associated with the movement. Whilst the composition appears geometric, Sea Form is a piece that is fundamentally organic. The sweeping curves and vibrant blues are an ode to the Cornish coastline and Atlantic ocean, which proved a source of enduring inspiration from Hepworth’s move to St Ives in 1939, until her death in 1975.
When writing about the colours of the Atlantic, Hepworth outlines how 'the sea, a flat diminishing plane, held within itself the capacity to radiate an infinitude of blues, greys, greens and even pinks of strange hues' (B. Hepworth, Drawings From A Sculptor's Landscape, London, Cory Adams & Mackay, 1966, p.12). Sea Form is one of a series of paintings made in the Sixties, which document the changing light and movement of this specific stretch of water. It offers an insight into the artist’s preoccupation with colour, that would lead her to create some of her most innovative sculptures, including lot 8 from our Evening Sale, Sculpture with Colour (Eos).
The present lot was previously owned by Jorge Lewinski (1921-2008), known for his photographs of pre-eminent post-war British artists such as Francis Bacon, L.S. Lowry and Henry Moore. Lewinski’s portrait of Hepworth is one of the most recognisable images of the artist. Shot in 1963, the photograph shows Hepworth framed by the arcs and strings of her sculptures, in a composition that is not structurally dissimilar to Sea Form. The image achieved Lewinski’s aim of conveying a ‘deeper insight into the imaginative world of [the] sitter’ (J. Lewinski, quoted in A. Hopkinson, Jorge Lewinski, The Guardian, London, February 2008). Lewinski was introduced to collecting art by the Polish expressionist painter Felix Topolski (1907-1989), who traded his drawings in exchange for Lewinski’s portraits. Thus began the formation of Lewinski’s art collection, which incorporated pieces by many of the artists whom he photographed, including Hepworth’s Sea Form.
The intersecting lines that form the focal point of Sea Form, and draw the eye to the centre of the work, have a sculptural quality and create a sense of depth. Although Hepworth distanced herself from Constructivism in 1945, the line work calls to mind the work of her contemporaries in St Ives, such as Naum Gabo, who were associated with the movement. Whilst the composition appears geometric, Sea Form is a piece that is fundamentally organic. The sweeping curves and vibrant blues are an ode to the Cornish coastline and Atlantic ocean, which proved a source of enduring inspiration from Hepworth’s move to St Ives in 1939, until her death in 1975.
When writing about the colours of the Atlantic, Hepworth outlines how 'the sea, a flat diminishing plane, held within itself the capacity to radiate an infinitude of blues, greys, greens and even pinks of strange hues' (B. Hepworth, Drawings From A Sculptor's Landscape, London, Cory Adams & Mackay, 1966, p.12). Sea Form is one of a series of paintings made in the Sixties, which document the changing light and movement of this specific stretch of water. It offers an insight into the artist’s preoccupation with colour, that would lead her to create some of her most innovative sculptures, including lot 8 from our Evening Sale, Sculpture with Colour (Eos).
The present lot was previously owned by Jorge Lewinski (1921-2008), known for his photographs of pre-eminent post-war British artists such as Francis Bacon, L.S. Lowry and Henry Moore. Lewinski’s portrait of Hepworth is one of the most recognisable images of the artist. Shot in 1963, the photograph shows Hepworth framed by the arcs and strings of her sculptures, in a composition that is not structurally dissimilar to Sea Form. The image achieved Lewinski’s aim of conveying a ‘deeper insight into the imaginative world of [the] sitter’ (J. Lewinski, quoted in A. Hopkinson, Jorge Lewinski, The Guardian, London, February 2008). Lewinski was introduced to collecting art by the Polish expressionist painter Felix Topolski (1907-1989), who traded his drawings in exchange for Lewinski’s portraits. Thus began the formation of Lewinski’s art collection, which incorporated pieces by many of the artists whom he photographed, including Hepworth’s Sea Form.