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PROPERTY OF THE EXXONMOBIL FOUNDATION

1903-1975
THREE OBLIQUES (WALK-IN)

measurements
height: 114 in.

alternate measurements
289.5 cm

Conceived in 1968 and cast by the Morris Singer Foundry in 1969 in an edition of 2, plus 1 artist's proof.

Inscribed Barbara Hepworth, dated 1969, stamped with the foundry mark Morris Singer Founders, London and numbered 1/2

Bronze, mottled green patina

PROVENANCE

Gimpel Fils, London

Acquired from the above in February 1972

EXHIBITED

London, Gimpel Fils, Open Air Sculpture, 1969

London, Gimpel Fils, Open Air Sculpture II, 1970, no. 10

London, Gimpel Fils, Barbara Hepworth, 1972, no. 32

London, Gimpel Fils, Barbara Hepworth, 20 Sculptures from 1935 to 1970, 1975, no. 54

LITERATURE

Barbara Hepworth (exhibition catalogue) Marlborough Gallery, New York, 1970, no. 18, illustration of another cast

Alan Bowness, Barbara Hepworth, 1960-1969, London, 1971, no. 473, illustrations of another cast pls. 14, 183 and 184

Barbara Hepworth (exhibition catalogue), Gimpel Gallery, New York, 1971, no. 8, illustration of another cast on the cover

W. J. Strachan, Open Air Sculpture in Britain: A Comprehensive Guide, London, 1984, no. 488, illustrated p. 212

Eugene Rosenberg, Architect's Choice: Art in Architecture in Britain since 1945, London, 1992, illustration of another cast pp. 94-95

Penelope Curtis, St. Ives Artists: Barbara Hepworth, London, 1998, fig. 45, illustration of another cast p. 43

Matthew Gale and Chris Stephens, Barbara Hepworth: Works in the Tate Gallery Collection and the Barbara Hepworth Museum St. Ives, London, 1999, pp. 238 and 252

Christina Haberlik, Ulrike Braun, Ira Diana Mazzoni, 50 Klassiker Kunstlerinnen: Malerinnen, Blidhauerinnen und Photographinnen, Gerstenberg, 2002, illustration of another cast p. 26

NOTE

Standing at nearly three meters high, Hepworth's Three Obliques (Walk-In) is one of the artist's most dynamic works in bronze. As the leading female sculptor of the Modernist movement, Hepworth gave refreshing interpretations of the weighty, streamlined forms that had hitherto been the aesthetic idiom of her male colleagues, including Henry Moore. In this work from the late 1960s, Hepworth weaves the surrounding space into her sculpture by piercing each oblique form and allowing light and air to flow through the structure. What is even more engaging is Hepworth's invitation to "walk in," which adds to the sculpture's sheltering, architectural quality.

Alan Bowness has written, "Hepworth's bronze sculptures are either versions of carvings, translated into a more permanent material, or what she called "free forms," which can only exist in the medium of bronze. The possibilities of the material fascinated her -- she found that she could make forms that were more open and fluid that anything she had done in wood or stone. Cutting and bending a sheet of metal and stringing it was a part of the constructivist element in her work ... And then she found a way of making the bronze without modeling -- first constructing an armature, and then building up and carving down the plaster until she reached the shape and surface she required. She loved the color of the eventual bronze, and the variety of patination that was possible, sometimes varying the casts in a single edition. The bronzes were always returned to her from the foundry, and often worked on in the studio until she was satisfied. Like Moore, she was adamant that there should be no posthumous casts of her work, and incomplete editions were left unfinished" (Alan Bowness, in Barbara Hepworth, Sculptures from the Estate (exhibition catalogue), Wildenstein Gallery, New York, 1996, p. 7).

Sophie Bowness has confirmed that the two other casts from this edition are at the Jewish Medical Center in Long Island and at University College in Cardiff.