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Lot Essay
As 1959 drew to a close and a new decade appeared on the horizon, Barbara Hepworth was looking forward to a change of pace and direction in her sculpture. Following successful exhibitions in New York and at the São Paolo Bienal earlier that year, where she was awarded the event’s prestigious Grand Prix, Hepworth had entered an intensely busy period of work, as she finalised the selection of pieces for an upcoming show in Zurich and brought the large-scale bronze version of Meridian (1958-1960; BH 250) to completion. Writing to the art historian and curator Herbert Read that December, the artist explained that she was planning ‘a long spell of quiet carving in the garden’ as a form of relaxation and respite (quoted in M. Gale and C. Stephens (eds.), Barbara Hepworth: Works in the Tate Collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St. Ives, 2004, p. 203). Carved in 1960, Curved Form is an elegant, dynamic example from the sequence of unique sculptures that emerged during the ensuing months, as Hepworth returned to direct carving with a renewed focus and intent that resulted in a great surge of creativity.
Hepworth’s deeply rooted passion for direct carving – a technique she had first discovered during an extended sojourn to Italy in the 1920s – profoundly shaped her approach to form across her career. She often expressed her enjoyment of the physicality of this method of sculpting, the rhythms and motions that occurred in the act of cutting into and shaping the organic materials with her own hands, whether they be stone or wood. ‘The rhythm of the cutting is so sensitive and subconscious that it can express the slightest variation of bodily or physical response from day to day – as does one’s handwriting,’ she explained (‘The Sculptor Speaks,’ 1961; quoted in S. Bowness (ed.), Barbara Hepworth: Writings and Conversations, London, 2015, p. 157).
During the early 1960s, Hepworth explored a number of different types and species of wood in her carving practice, from exotic sub-tropical Guarea trees from Nigeria, to hardwoods such as mahogany, elm and walnut. Drawn to materials that offered an essential resistance to her chisel, Hepworth revelled in the natural beauty of each of these materials, their distinctive colouring, texture and individual markings drawing her artistic interest. ‘The excitement of organic material with its highly vivid and sensuous quality of growth and structure,’ Hepworth wrote the year before embarking on the present work, ‘leading to tactile qualities as well as highly individual qualities of each living structure, exerts the greatest influence’ (quoted in ibid., p. 130).
In Curved Form, Hepworth carves a singular upright form in a warm-hued piece of walnut, shaping one side into a smooth, planar face, while the others retain their rounded contours. From every angle of the sculpture the natural patterning of the wood offers a different effect, appearing like vertical pinstripes in some places, while others boast darker, rippling lines that cascade down the smooth surface in wavy, horizontal bands. On the face of the sculpture, Hepworth pierces the wood, creating a perfect circular opening that sits at the centre of a delicately shaped concave divot. By cutting straight through the mass of the sculpture in this way, opening up the solid wood so that light is drawn into it, she introduces a powerful sense of dynamism and tension to the piece. This was a favourite practice of Hepworth’s, the passages through the material establishing a variety of different viewpoints that shift and change as the viewer moves around the piece, the circular hole framing the surrounding space in a variety of intriguing ways. In a way, this detail echoes the organic weathering of these materials within the natural environment, their surfaces shaped, honed and carved by the power of the elements.
At the same time, Hepworth accentuates the deep tones of the walnut by adding a layer of liming to the face of the sculpture, setting up a strong visual contrast. Hepworth often deployed this technique in her wooden forms, filling carved hollows and interior cavities with opaque washes of pale, white paint, emphasising the artist’s presence in the act of shaping and creating the final form. In Curved Form, she inverts this effect, allowing the conical perforation through the form to retain the natural colouring of the polished wood, while its surrounding is transformed by the addition of the pigment, the contrast focusing the eye on the pierced element and the view beyond.
In many ways, the a-symmetrical, upright shape of Curved Form bears strong affinities to Hepworth’s famous series of Single Form sculptures, a concentrated group of works which mark the high-point of her quest for a pure, abstract sculpture. Executed first in wood, plaster and marble, and later in bronze, these works all explore variations on the theme of a solitary, slender, vertical standing form. The Single Form works have become inextricably linked to the story of Hepworth’s close friendship with the highly respected secretary general of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, through the late 1950s and early 1960s. As Hepworth later explained, she found in Hammarskjöld a kindred spirit, with the pair sharing a similar view on the responsibility of the artists in the community and more broadly of the individual within society. Hammarskjöld was also a great admirer of Hepworth’s work and bought the sandalwood version of Single Form (1937-1938; BH 103) from the artist’s exhibition at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York in 1956.
The two corresponded frequently between 1956 and 1961 and in a letter to Hepworth dated 11 September 1961, Hammarskjöld wrote about his Single Form: ‘I have now had it before me a couple of weeks, living with it in all shades of light, both physically and mentally, and this is the report: it is a strong and exacting companion, but at the same time one of deep quiet and timeless perspective in inner space. You may react at the word exacting, but a work of great art sets its own standard of integrity and remains a continuous reminder of what should be achieved in everything’ (quoted in M. Fröhlich, ‘A Fully Integrated Vision: Politics and the Arts in the Dag Hammarskjöld-Barbara Hepworth Correspondence’ in Development Dialogue, no. 44, Uppsala, 2001, p. 56).
Upon hearing the news of Hammarskjöld’s untimely death in a plane crash in September 1961, Hepworth felt compelled to embark on a new carving in his honour, also in walnut, which she titled Single Form (September) (BH 312) in recognition of the month of his passing. Now in the collection of the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St Ives, Single Form (September) holds a strong formal similarity to Curved Form in both its shape and in the placement of the circular element in the upper right corner of the face. Shortly thereafter, Hepworth was commissioned to create a monumental sculpture to be placed in the United Nations Plaza in New York in memory of her friend. In his lifetime, Hammarskjöld believed the artistic environment of the United Nations to be intrinsic to the spiritual enrichment of those who worked there, and had spoken with Hepworth about producing a scheme for the new building, and, importantly, the shapes he liked most. As a result, between 1961 and 1964, Hepworth was able to produce a sculpture informed directly by Hammarskjöld’s wishes: the monumental, 21 foot-high bronze Single Form (BH 325), which firmly cemented the artist’s reputation among international audiences.
Acquired by the present owner over thirty-five years ago, Curved Form offers an intriguing glimpse into this period of fervent creativity in Hepworth’s career. With its elegant lines and the dynamic manipulation of both the natural wood and more ephemeral considerations such as light and movement, the sculpture showcases Hepworth’s extraordinary technical skills and the continuing spirit of innovation that marked this period of her mature career.
Hepworth’s deeply rooted passion for direct carving – a technique she had first discovered during an extended sojourn to Italy in the 1920s – profoundly shaped her approach to form across her career. She often expressed her enjoyment of the physicality of this method of sculpting, the rhythms and motions that occurred in the act of cutting into and shaping the organic materials with her own hands, whether they be stone or wood. ‘The rhythm of the cutting is so sensitive and subconscious that it can express the slightest variation of bodily or physical response from day to day – as does one’s handwriting,’ she explained (‘The Sculptor Speaks,’ 1961; quoted in S. Bowness (ed.), Barbara Hepworth: Writings and Conversations, London, 2015, p. 157).
During the early 1960s, Hepworth explored a number of different types and species of wood in her carving practice, from exotic sub-tropical Guarea trees from Nigeria, to hardwoods such as mahogany, elm and walnut. Drawn to materials that offered an essential resistance to her chisel, Hepworth revelled in the natural beauty of each of these materials, their distinctive colouring, texture and individual markings drawing her artistic interest. ‘The excitement of organic material with its highly vivid and sensuous quality of growth and structure,’ Hepworth wrote the year before embarking on the present work, ‘leading to tactile qualities as well as highly individual qualities of each living structure, exerts the greatest influence’ (quoted in ibid., p. 130).
In Curved Form, Hepworth carves a singular upright form in a warm-hued piece of walnut, shaping one side into a smooth, planar face, while the others retain their rounded contours. From every angle of the sculpture the natural patterning of the wood offers a different effect, appearing like vertical pinstripes in some places, while others boast darker, rippling lines that cascade down the smooth surface in wavy, horizontal bands. On the face of the sculpture, Hepworth pierces the wood, creating a perfect circular opening that sits at the centre of a delicately shaped concave divot. By cutting straight through the mass of the sculpture in this way, opening up the solid wood so that light is drawn into it, she introduces a powerful sense of dynamism and tension to the piece. This was a favourite practice of Hepworth’s, the passages through the material establishing a variety of different viewpoints that shift and change as the viewer moves around the piece, the circular hole framing the surrounding space in a variety of intriguing ways. In a way, this detail echoes the organic weathering of these materials within the natural environment, their surfaces shaped, honed and carved by the power of the elements.
At the same time, Hepworth accentuates the deep tones of the walnut by adding a layer of liming to the face of the sculpture, setting up a strong visual contrast. Hepworth often deployed this technique in her wooden forms, filling carved hollows and interior cavities with opaque washes of pale, white paint, emphasising the artist’s presence in the act of shaping and creating the final form. In Curved Form, she inverts this effect, allowing the conical perforation through the form to retain the natural colouring of the polished wood, while its surrounding is transformed by the addition of the pigment, the contrast focusing the eye on the pierced element and the view beyond.
In many ways, the a-symmetrical, upright shape of Curved Form bears strong affinities to Hepworth’s famous series of Single Form sculptures, a concentrated group of works which mark the high-point of her quest for a pure, abstract sculpture. Executed first in wood, plaster and marble, and later in bronze, these works all explore variations on the theme of a solitary, slender, vertical standing form. The Single Form works have become inextricably linked to the story of Hepworth’s close friendship with the highly respected secretary general of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, through the late 1950s and early 1960s. As Hepworth later explained, she found in Hammarskjöld a kindred spirit, with the pair sharing a similar view on the responsibility of the artists in the community and more broadly of the individual within society. Hammarskjöld was also a great admirer of Hepworth’s work and bought the sandalwood version of Single Form (1937-1938; BH 103) from the artist’s exhibition at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York in 1956.
The two corresponded frequently between 1956 and 1961 and in a letter to Hepworth dated 11 September 1961, Hammarskjöld wrote about his Single Form: ‘I have now had it before me a couple of weeks, living with it in all shades of light, both physically and mentally, and this is the report: it is a strong and exacting companion, but at the same time one of deep quiet and timeless perspective in inner space. You may react at the word exacting, but a work of great art sets its own standard of integrity and remains a continuous reminder of what should be achieved in everything’ (quoted in M. Fröhlich, ‘A Fully Integrated Vision: Politics and the Arts in the Dag Hammarskjöld-Barbara Hepworth Correspondence’ in Development Dialogue, no. 44, Uppsala, 2001, p. 56).
Upon hearing the news of Hammarskjöld’s untimely death in a plane crash in September 1961, Hepworth felt compelled to embark on a new carving in his honour, also in walnut, which she titled Single Form (September) (BH 312) in recognition of the month of his passing. Now in the collection of the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St Ives, Single Form (September) holds a strong formal similarity to Curved Form in both its shape and in the placement of the circular element in the upper right corner of the face. Shortly thereafter, Hepworth was commissioned to create a monumental sculpture to be placed in the United Nations Plaza in New York in memory of her friend. In his lifetime, Hammarskjöld believed the artistic environment of the United Nations to be intrinsic to the spiritual enrichment of those who worked there, and had spoken with Hepworth about producing a scheme for the new building, and, importantly, the shapes he liked most. As a result, between 1961 and 1964, Hepworth was able to produce a sculpture informed directly by Hammarskjöld’s wishes: the monumental, 21 foot-high bronze Single Form (BH 325), which firmly cemented the artist’s reputation among international audiences.
Acquired by the present owner over thirty-five years ago, Curved Form offers an intriguing glimpse into this period of fervent creativity in Hepworth’s career. With its elegant lines and the dynamic manipulation of both the natural wood and more ephemeral considerations such as light and movement, the sculpture showcases Hepworth’s extraordinary technical skills and the continuing spirit of innovation that marked this period of her mature career.