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Oval Sculpture (Delos)

HEPWORTH, Barbara (1903 - 1975)

Oval Sculpture (Delos)
© Bowness

Date: 1955

Media: scented guarea wood with painted concavities

Size: 85.8 x 122.0 cm

Acquired: 1982; Purchase

Accession Number: NMW A 2416

Barbara Hepworth married Ben Nicholson in 1932 and was established as a leading and uncompromising exponent of abstraction by 1950. In 1954-5 she carved several abstract sculptures with Grecian titles from a consignment of seventeen tons of Nigerian hardwood. Amongst her grandest and most lyrical works, these were inspired by the landscape and antiquities of Greece. Delos is both the site of the cave of Apollo and the island around which the Cyclades lie in an oval form.

Comments (3)

Melanie Polledri Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales Staff
27 November 2018, 11:06

This prominent reference to Ben Nicholson may have related to another display of his work from which the above information is derived. However, your comment is valid and we will look into it.

Patrick Mathlin
26 November 2018, 22:07
I find it unbelievable that in the 21st century an institution such as the National Museum of Wales chooses to open its biographical comment about a female artist by stating who she was married to. Although a significant fact, Hepworth does not need to be defined by who she was married to in my opinion
Stephen West
11 October 2010, 10:44
A fantastic sense of peace, solidity, scale and grace in this great example of Hepworth's wooden sculpture. It would be great to have other Hepworth in the collection and also her first husband John Skeaping. Also in view of the influence on David Nash and others and complement the early 20th C collection (Gaudier-Breska) to purchase a work by Brancusi a wooden sculpture or if that's impossible at least one of his own photographs...
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