Lot Essay
'From 1965 to 1975, the last decade of her career, Barbara Hepworth continued to explore the three basic forms which had had special relevance for her since her youth: the standing form, two forms and the closed form. But in a number of carvings and bronzes from these years she had moved on, found new and unexpected sources of inspiration, and created a group of works that constitute a genuine late style. As Alan Bowness has remarked in discussing the greatness of the late style of a number of artists, including Henry Moore, 'The late work is invariably more private, more centred on the artist's own obsessions, often reverting to much earlier moments of his artistic career or of his life. It is inevitably more difficult to appreciate for the public at large, who may be impressed, without quite understanding why.' (see A. Wilkinson, exhibition catalogue, Barbara Hepworth, A Retrospective, Liverpool, 1994, pp.109-112).