Dame Barbara Hepworth

Hepworth Estate
Acquired by a Private Collection through Marlborough Gallery, New York, 1981
U.S.A. Corporate Collection
Their sale, Christie's New York, 16th May 1990, lot 477
Gimpel Fils and New Art Centre, London, where acquired by a Private Collection, Chicago
Acquired from the above by the present owner

St Ives, Penwith Gallery, Summer Exhibition 1972, 15th June - 7th September 1972, cat. no.4 (another cast);
London, Marlborough Fine Art, Twentieth Century Sculpture, 5th May - 29th June 1979, un-numbered exhibition (another cast);
New York, Marlborough Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: Carvings and Bronzes, 5th May - 29th June 1979, cat. no.50, illustrated p.55;
Swansea, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Museum, Barbara Hepworth: A Sculptor’s Landscape, 2nd October - 6th November 1982, cat. no.31, illustrated (another cast), with tour to Bangor, Wrexham and the Isle of Man;  
New York, Wildenstein Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: Sculptures from the Estate, 8th October - 16th November 1996, illustrated p.91 (another cast);
Salisbury, New Art Centre, Barbara Hepworth: Polished Bronzes, 6th December 2001 - 24th February 2002, illustrated (another cast);
Wakefield, Wakefield Art Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: Polished Bronzes, May - June 2003 (another cast), with tour to Museum het Catharina Gasthuis, Gouda;
Wakefield, The Hepworth Wakefield, A Greater Freedom: Hepworth 1965-1975, 18th April 2015 - 24th April 2016 (another cast). 

Penelope Curtis, Barbara Hepworth, Tate Publishing, London, 2013, illustrated fig.57 (marble version).

Structurally sound. There are some extremely minor casting imperfections and pitting marks visible to the polished surface of the bronze, only visible upon extremely close inspection. This excepting the work appears in excellent overall condition. Housed on an integral 6cm. high bronze base. Please contact the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

We are grateful to Dr Sophie Bowness for her kind assistance with the cataloguing apparatus for the present work, which will feature in her forthcoming revised catalogue raisonné of the Artist's sculpture as cat. no.BH538.

Hepworth’s later years ushered in a particularly proliferous period in her career, both in terms of production, but also, and perhaps most importantly, in terms of her experimentation with new materials.  From the mid-1950s she had started using bronze alongside her wood and stone carvings, and in the 1960s introduced a wider use of polished bronze as well as casting in gold.  The gleaming surface of these works appealed to Hepworth in their emphasis on the changing effects of light and in Oval with Two Forms different reflections and patterns dance across the surface of the sculpture, breaking up its solidity and drawing us into the central concaved form. As Hepworth herself stated: 'The importance of light in relation to form will always interest me ... Light gives full play to our tactile perceptions through the experience of our eyes’ (The Artist quoted in Barbara Hepworth Polished Bronzes (exh. cat.), New Art Centre Sculpture Park & Gallery, East Winterslow, 2001, un-numbered, unpaginated).

In its sumptuousness, this luxurious golden finish is akin to the exotic coloured stones, the supple finished marbles, and the slate carvings Hepworth was also incorporating into her work at this time. She initially created Oval with Two Forms as a black and white carving (1971, Tate, London, BH 525), the oval and larger internal form were carved from two different varieties of pearlescent marble and the small triangular element is made of slate. These triangular forms of slate found a place in many of Hepworth’s works of this period, and her assistants noted that she would often use and work up corners of slate that had broken off larger elements to create her desired forms (Breon O'Casey and Tommy Rowe, interview with Chris Stephens 16 Oct. 1996, cited in Matthew Gale and Chris Stephens, Barbara Hepworth: Works in the Tate Gallery collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St Ives, Tate Publishing, London, 1999, p.260).

By 1972, Hepworth was at the height of her fame, gaining recognition both at home and abroad, and in Oval with Two Forms we see an important manifestation of the major themes that she had explored throughout her artistic career. The simplified geometric shapes and smooth surface reflect her abstract modernist sculptures of the pre-WWII years, while there is also a sense of the organic-derived forms she incorporated into her sculptures following the War. One sees evidence of the organic particularly in the relationship between the interior and exterior space, the small forms which are cushioned within a larger form. Hepworth stated that she was 'always …fascinated by the relationship of inner and outer form. The relationship of a nut in a shell - or of a child in the womb - or the amazingly different qualities of, say, the inner and outer surfaces of shells or of crystals' ('The Sculptor Speaks,’ British Council recorded lecture with filmstrip, 1970, TGA TAV525). In Oval with Two Forms there is a sense of safety and security as the two vertical elements are cradled within the larger form, which provides a counterpoint to the coolness of the highly finished surface and simple geometry. This contrast instills Hepworth’s works of this period with an energy and vitality that makes them so profoundly compelling.