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BARBAR A HEPWORTH (1903-1975) Hollow oval (January), 1965 Polished bronze with strings, on a bronze base Edition of 9 Signed with initials 'BH' and numbered on the artist's base Inscribed with the foundry mark 'MS' (Morris Singer) to the rear of the bronze base 13 x 19 x 10 cm (5 ⅛ x 7 ½ x 4 in) (including the artist's base) Provenance G. Blair Laing Ltd., Toronto Acquired from the above by the previous owner, 1965 Private Collection, UK Exhibited London, Gimpel Fils, Collector's Choice XIII, March – April 1965, no. 46, another cast exhibited New York, Marlborough Gerson Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: Exhibition of Sculpture, April – May 1966, no. 27 London, Tate Gallery, Barbara Hepworth Retrospective 1927- 67, April – May 1968, no. 148, another cast exhibited Literature H. Read (intro.), exhibition catalogue, Barbara Hepworth: Exhibition of Sculpture, New York, Marlborough Gerson Gallery, 1966, n.p., no. 27, another cast illustrated R. Alley (intro.), exhibition catalogue, Barbara Hepworth Retrospective 1927-67, London, Tate Gallery, 1968, pp. 40, 60, no. 148, another cast illustrated A. Bowness (ed.), The Complete Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth 1960-69, London, 1971, p. 39, no. 375, another cast illustrated. A.G. Wilkinson, Barbara Hepworth: The Art Gallery of Ontario Collection, Ontario, 1991, pp. 36, 46, no. 13, another cast illustrated Ede described Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore 'arguing across a dinner table as to which of them had first put a hole into sculpture'. The setting was Ede's house, 1 Elm Row; the stone prompting the debate was from 'the island of Aix, the last place in France where Napoleon set foot'. 1 At Kettle's Yard, Ede balanced the stone on a mantlepiece, its hole echoing the pale circle in Ben Nicholson's painting 1932–33 (black guitar). Pierced or stringed forms formed a shared artistic currency in the 1930s. A fabric block-printed by Hepworth around 1933, years before she (or Moore) created their first stringed sculptures, features a simple design that when repeated resembles a hollowed oval crossed with strings. This fabric was among those by Hepworth and Nicholson that Ede collected, making them into curtains transported from house to house. Inked in blue, with the linear form remaining white, Hepworth's design survives as a fragile, faded cushion cover at Kettle's Yard. Ede would carefully mend treasured fabrics, sometimes framing them as pictures. Ede's fondness for stones, which would finally result in his acquisition of Hepworth's slate Three Personages (1965), was reciprocated by many of his artist friends. In 1963, John Blackburn sent an oddly shaped pebble from New Zealand: Ede named it 'the Henry Moore stone' and placed it in his bathroom. 2 Ede posted Ben Nicholson a small parcel of 'luminous' pebbles from Budleigh Salterton in 1964, wishing he had more time to find 'one great round one'. 3 Decades earlier, Hepworth described the effect of Miró's painting Tic Tic (1927), lent by Ede, in its new surroundings: It looks quite lovely in my studio with the forms & chunks of wood & stone & has given everything an air of joyousness. … we looked at my collection of stones & pebbles & crystals & metals. Jim gave Simon a crystal which he has carried in his pocket from New York & I gave him one which stands up with the personality of the big stone in the field of a farm near here. Leger once described to us how each peasant in Greece would choose out a special pebble or stone to carry in his pocket for the day. 4 1 A Way of Life: Kettle's Yard, pp.70–71. 2 Freeman, p.254. 3 Ede, letter to Ben Nicholson, 26 June 1964, Tate Archive, TGA 8717/1/2/959. 4 Barbara Hepworth, letter to Herbert Read, 14 May [1944], University of Leeds and University of Victoria Herbert Read Collection, HR/BH-81. Barbara Hepworth © Bowness 50