Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)

Convolute

Details
Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)
Convolute
grey cumberland stone
10 in. (25.4 cm.) long
Carved in 1944
Provenance
Margot Eates, M.B.E. by whom acquired direct from the artist, thence by descent.
Literature
H. Read, Barbara Hepworth, Carvings and Drawings, London, 1952, pl.76b (as grey alabaster).
J.P. Hodin, Barbara Hepworth, London, 1961, no.126 (as grey alabaster).
Exhibited
London, Lefevre Gallery, Barbara Hepworth, Sculpture and Drawings, October 1946, no.12.
Manchester, City Art Gallery, Barbara Hepworth, Sculpture and Drawings, September-October 1951, no.21.

Lot Essay

The artist in A Pictorial Autobiography wrote 'The forms which have had a special meaning for me since childhood have been the standing form (which is the translation of my feeling towards the human being standing in a landscape); the two forms (which is the tender relationship of one living thing beside another); and the closed form, such as the oval, spherical or pierced form (sometimes incorporating colour) which translates for me the association and meaning of gesture in landscape'.

Hepworth, Nicholson and their family moved to Carbis Bay, St Ives at the end of December 1939, however, the house was small and there was a little studio space in which she could carve. It was not until 1942 when they purchased Chy-an-Kerris, where she 'had a studio workroom looking straight towards the horizon of the sea and enfolded (but with always the escape for the eye straight out to the Atlantic) by the arms of land to the left and right of me'.

By 1943 she was carving again resulting in a series of semi-abstract works with strong landscape and figurative associations such as Wave, 1943; Pelagos, 1946; and the present work.

Margot Eates, M.B.E. (1913-1994) began her career at the British Museum. In 1939 she published An Introduction into Modern Art. Other writings include numerous articles for the Burlington and Apollo magazines in addition to her major translation of Michelangelo's letters, published in 1963. With her partner, Hartley Ramsden she organised the 1942 Exhibition of Modern Art at Lancaster House, by which time she had become a friend of Barbara Hepworth's and whose work was represented in the exhibition. Other artists included Mondrian, Gabo, Nicholson, Sutherland and Paul Nash.

More from Post War

View All
View All