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拍品专文
'I arranged in my studio, opposite my bed, a mirror which reflects the rising morning sun – for half an hour with incredible splendour this moving & focused source of light travels slowly over the nine sculptures in its path – Hollows & piercings, forms within forms, strings & features, volume & space are animated to a new vibration of life & every form & contour, known so intimately by my hands, reveals its proper significance'
(Barbara Hepworth, letter to Herbert Read, January 1953 in S. Bowness, Barbara Hepworth: The Sculptor in the Studio, London, 2017, p. 28)
Hepworth’s Three Curves with Strings [Gold Mincarlo] is part of a significant collection of sculptures which were commissioned in 1971 by the Morris Singer Sculpture Association Ltd. The key British sculptors at the time – including Elisabeth Frink, Kenneth Armitage and Lynn Chadwick (see lot 130) – were asked to create small-scale works, measuring less than twelve inches in width, cast in 18 carat gold, each in an edition of 12. G. Whittet, reviewing their exhibition at The Goldsmith’s Hall, argued that the commission stands testament to the identities of each artist: ‘Together they are miniature examples of the spirit of contemporary sculpture in free-standing form… all of them establishing iconic identities within their own intrinsic scales’ (G. Whittet, Art and Artists, London, March 1975, p. 41). Whittet observes how Hepworth’s Mincarlo, ‘transcribes into gold the wired semi-spheroid she has created previously in bronze and stone’ (ibid., p. 42).
Three Curves with Strings [Gold Mincarlo] can be seen as a continued exploration of many of the themes and concerns which occupied Hepworth’s oeuvre. The folded spherical semi-circular forms recall her geometric, abstracted forms of the 1930s. She had included string in her work as early as 1939, enabling her to introduce dynamic shapes and explore the relationship of the space between the forms.
In 1966, Hepworth produced two unique works in gold, Sun and Moon (BH 417) and Single Form (Sun and Moon) (BH 418). The first incorporated strings and piercings within the form. In 1969, Hepworth conceived Disc with Strings (Moon) (BH 484) in aluminium, and Disc with Strings (Sun) (BH 485) in polished bronze. With its stringing, double piercing and warm colouration, Disc with Strings (Sun) (BH 485), and its smaller, bronze version, Small Sun (BH 489), are most closely related to the main face of Mincarlo, perhaps inspiring the creation of a three piece version in precious metal two years later.
Mincarlo is a rocky, uninhabited island immediately west of Bryher and Samson in the Scilly Isles, Cornwall. Hepworth visited the Scilly Isles on short trips, and these holidays would provide much inspiration for the remainder of her life.
(Barbara Hepworth, letter to Herbert Read, January 1953 in S. Bowness, Barbara Hepworth: The Sculptor in the Studio, London, 2017, p. 28)
Hepworth’s Three Curves with Strings [Gold Mincarlo] is part of a significant collection of sculptures which were commissioned in 1971 by the Morris Singer Sculpture Association Ltd. The key British sculptors at the time – including Elisabeth Frink, Kenneth Armitage and Lynn Chadwick (see lot 130) – were asked to create small-scale works, measuring less than twelve inches in width, cast in 18 carat gold, each in an edition of 12. G. Whittet, reviewing their exhibition at The Goldsmith’s Hall, argued that the commission stands testament to the identities of each artist: ‘Together they are miniature examples of the spirit of contemporary sculpture in free-standing form… all of them establishing iconic identities within their own intrinsic scales’ (G. Whittet, Art and Artists, London, March 1975, p. 41). Whittet observes how Hepworth’s Mincarlo, ‘transcribes into gold the wired semi-spheroid she has created previously in bronze and stone’ (ibid., p. 42).
Three Curves with Strings [Gold Mincarlo] can be seen as a continued exploration of many of the themes and concerns which occupied Hepworth’s oeuvre. The folded spherical semi-circular forms recall her geometric, abstracted forms of the 1930s. She had included string in her work as early as 1939, enabling her to introduce dynamic shapes and explore the relationship of the space between the forms.
In 1966, Hepworth produced two unique works in gold, Sun and Moon (BH 417) and Single Form (Sun and Moon) (BH 418). The first incorporated strings and piercings within the form. In 1969, Hepworth conceived Disc with Strings (Moon) (BH 484) in aluminium, and Disc with Strings (Sun) (BH 485) in polished bronze. With its stringing, double piercing and warm colouration, Disc with Strings (Sun) (BH 485), and its smaller, bronze version, Small Sun (BH 489), are most closely related to the main face of Mincarlo, perhaps inspiring the creation of a three piece version in precious metal two years later.
Mincarlo is a rocky, uninhabited island immediately west of Bryher and Samson in the Scilly Isles, Cornwall. Hepworth visited the Scilly Isles on short trips, and these holidays would provide much inspiration for the remainder of her life.