Two Forms (Orkney)
Barbara Hepworth (Wakefield 1903 – St Ives 1975)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1967
Materials
Bronze and wood
Measurements
195 x 290 x 200 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Dudmaston, Shropshire
NT 814369
Caption
Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903–75) was one of the greatest sculptors of the 20th century. Her distinctive and iconic work has not only stood the test of time but also proved highly influential in the world of design and architecture. This sculpture was bought by the diplomat and art collector Sir George Labouchere (1905–99) and displayed within his collection at Dudmaston in Shropshire, which was gifted to the National Trust in 1994. The power of Hepworth’s work was its simplicity, suggesting a new aesthetic sensibility or appreciation of physical forms. Her work was often placed in different settings, both urban spaces and natural or ornamental landscapes as well as in the confines of a gallery, where it would take on different meanings. Hepworth’s career spanned from the 1930s until her death, and she worked in stone, wood, bronze and other metals. By casting in metal, she could explore different forms and make multiple versions to meet a popular international demand for her work.
Summary
Bronze, Two Forms (Orkney), Barbara Hepworth (Wakefield 1903 – St Ives 1975), cast by the Morris Singer Foundry, 1967. Two bronze abstract forms: one pierced with cylindrical opening, the other with circular indentation. Signature engraved on small plaque on base ‘Barbara Hepworth 1967 9/9 MS’. Screwed onto a rectangular wooden base, varnished, with black punch label in white 'B. HEPWORTH TWO FORMS 1967'.
Full description
Dudmaston Hall is known for its exceptional collection of modern and abstract art, brought together by the diplomat Sir George Labouchere (1905-99) from the 1950s. There are sculptures by Anthony Twentyman, Hans Arp, Kenneth Armitage, and Henry Moore as well as this small-scale, glossy bronze by Barbara Hepworth (1903-75). Two ovoid forms, polished to a high sheen, balance upon a lacquered wood platform, the pair subtly tilted towards each other. One is solid with a concave hollow, the other pierced with a circular hole. Like figures in a landscape or Neolithic standing stones, the forms relate to one another: the perfectly hemispherical cavity in the ‘abdomen’ of the left form corresponding to the perfectly circular aperture in the ‘torso’ of the right. Two Forms (Orkney) emerged out of Hepworth’s close friendship with Margaret Gardiner (1904-2005), the political activist and early proponent of British modernism whom the artist had met in London in the 1930s. Gardiner supported Hepworth by purchasing a significant amount of her work, and the two women maintained a long-lasting and often long-distance friendship: Hepworth at St Ives, Cornwall, and Gardiner on the Orkney island of Rousay. Although Hepworth never visited the Orkney archipelago, the islands’ evocative landscapes became the inspiration and namesake for this, the last of nine bronzes cast after an original slate sculpture fitting acquired in 2015 for Gardiner’s Pier Arts Centre, Stromness.
Provenance
First recorded and photographed by Barbara Hepworth in 1967 in her sculpture notes, no. 441, p.16 (Tate Gallery Archives, ref 7247/37); purchased by Sir George Labouchere and held in his collection at Dudmaston, which was handed to the National Trust by Sir George Labouchere under a Deed of Gift dated 30 September 1994.
Credit line
Dudmaston, The Sir George Labouchere Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
On plaque on base: Barbara Hepworth 1967 9/9 MS
Makers and roles
Barbara Hepworth (Wakefield 1903 – St Ives 1975), sculptor Morris Singer Foundry, Basingstoke, founder
References
Bowness 1971: Alan Bowness (ed.), The complete sculpture of Barbara Hepworth 1960–69, London 1971, p. 44, no. 441, another cast illustrated, p. 45. Labouchere 1980: Sir George Labouchere, Contemporary Art at Dudmaston, National Trust 1980, unpaginated, The Oak Room, as 'An abstract sculpture in bronze (Two Forms)'. Bowness 2004, 2017: Alan Bowness, 'Hepworth [married names Skeaping, Nicholson], Dame (Jocelyn) Barbara (1903–1975), sculptor', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 23 September 2004, revised 1 September 2017 Bowness 2011: Sophie Bowness (ed.), Barbara Hepworth, The Plasters, The Gift to Wakefield, Farnham, Surrey; Burlington, VT; in association with The Hepworth Wakefield, 2011, pp. 47-48, 61, 63, 152-153 and 182, no. 31 (another cast illustrated, p. 153, fig. 40; another cast illustrated in colour; plaster version illustrated, pp. 62 and 153. Curtis and Stephens 2015: Penelope Curtis and Chris Stephens, Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World, exh.cat. Tate Britain, London 2015 Bowness 2017: Sophie Bowness (ed.), Barbara Hepworth, Writings and Conversations, Tate Publishing, London 2017, p. 107. Stephens 2018: Chris Stephens, St Ives: The Art and the Artists, London 2018 Conroy, Rachel, Women Artists and Designers at the National Trust, 2025, pp. 232-235