Alabaster Form

Details

Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)
Alabaster Form
alabaster
7 in. (17.8 cm.) high, including base
Carved in 1946.

Provenance

Mrs Roger Field, by whom purchased from Lefevre Gallery, October 1946. Mrs Lister Kaye.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, 15 December 1965, lot 179, where purchased by Gimpel Fils, London.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 11 May 1989, lot 370, where purchased by Crane Kalman Gallery, London.
with Waddington Galleries, London, March 1990, where purchased by the present owner in February 1999.

Exhibited

London, Gimpel Fils, Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975, October - November 1975, ex-catalogue.
London, Theo Waddington, Victor Waddington, November - December 1993, no. 27.
London, Crane Kalman Gallery, Ben Nicholson and Two Wives, March - May 1996, no. 15.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

'Direct carving is the heart of sculpture'; this remark was made passionately by the artist as she handled reflectively a piece of marble at its early stage of shaping, expessing the core of the artist's creed. Clay or plaster was too responsive, too unresisting ('I hate modelling'), had too little character of its own to be subjected to the craftsman's will. Wood and stone, on the other hand, provided resistance, substance, their own inherent forms and tensions. 'I believe that the understanding of the material and the meaning of the form being carved must be in perfect eqilibrium'. The artist is never overborne by the material nor the material wholly subdued to the formal vision (see M. Merchant (intro.), Exhibition catalogue, Marlborough Fine Art, London, 1982, p. 5).

This work will be included as BH 156B in the forthcoming revised catalogue raisonné, currently being prepared by Dr. Sophie Bowness.

We are grateful to Dr. Sophie Bowness for her assistance with preparing the catalogue entries for lots 121 and 122.

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