Art Funded by you

Two Forms (Orkney)

Dame Barbara Hepworth, 1967

Barbara Hepworth, Two Forms (Orkney), 1967, Pier Arts Centre, Art Funded 2015. Art Map 2019 USED. Art Map 2018 USED.
© Bowness

This late stone carving by the great British Modernist sculptor Barbara Hepworth has strong associations for the Pier Arts Centre.

The gallery in Stromness, Orkney, was established in 1979 by Margaret Gardiner (1904- 2005), a close friend and patron of Hepworth's, and the title of the work suggests that the artist had the romantic landscape of Gardiner's Orkney home in mind when she named it.

The sculpture consists of two carved slate stones arranged on a lacquered wooden base as if in conversation with each other. One stone is pierced and the other is carved with a smooth concave circle. Hepworth issued nine bronze casts of the sculpture, an indication of the importance she attributed to it. Gardiner was a major collector of Hepworth's work, and in the late 1970s she donated her significant collection of British Modernist art to the Pier Arts Centre and people of Orkney. The gallery's holdings include several Hepworth carvings from the 1930s, which will be enhanced by the addition of this later piece. Two Forms (Orkney) was last exhibited at the 1968 Hepworth retrospective at the Tate, since when it has remained in private hands. As part of the Pier's public collection it now stands as one of the most prominent works by the artist in Scotland, and as a testament to the friendship of two remarkable women.

This work was acquired with assistance from the Wolfson Foundation.

More information

Title of artwork, date

Two Forms (Orkney), 1967

Date supported

2015

Medium and material

Slate on wood

Dimensions

21 cm

Grant

100000

Total cost

602889

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