Three Obliques (Walk In)
Three Obliques (Walk In) at the Cardiff University School of Music in May 2021
ArtistBarbara Hepworth
MovementModernist
Coordinates51°29′21″N 3°11′00″W / 51.4892°N 3.1834°W / 51.4892; -3.1834

Three Obliques (Walk In) is a 1968 sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. Three casts exist; two are in private collections and a third is displayed outside the Cardiff University School of Music in Cardiff, Wales. It is cast in bronze on a monumental scale.

Origin and description

The sculpture is an abstract piece cast in bronze consisting of three roughly trapezoidal wings, each 3 meters in height. The top of each wing is pierced by an oculus.[1]

The piece originated in Hepworth's 1967 sculpture Three Oblique Forms (February). It was created in a plaster in a version that is now in the Hepworth Wakefield collection of Hepworth's works. It was given to the collection by her daughters. Three Oblique Forms (February) was subsequently made into an edition in bronze of 9.[2] Hepworth subsequently created a bronze edition of Three Oblique Forms (February) in 1970 and created a lithograph Oblique Forms, of the same piece in 1969.[2]

The Sotheby's auction catalogue note for the 2015 sale of one of the casts described the "grandeur and monumentality" of the piece as "mitigated by the large circular holes which pierce the three interlocking sections and invite the viewer to interact with the sculpture".[3] The 'walk in' part of the title of the sculpture is an instruction to the viewer to interact with the piece. Hepworth said in a 1962 interview with The Studio magazine that she felt that through her work "It is easy now to communicate with people through abstraction, and particularly so in sculpture since the whole body reacts to its presence" and that "people become themselves a living part of the work".[3]

Three Obliques (Walk In) is the monumental version of Three Oblique Forms (February), it was created in 1968 in bronze. Hepworth would typically create smaller versions of her monumental pieces; Three Oblique Forms (Walk In) is unusual in that it was created after the smaller piece.[2] The three monumental casts were created by the Morris Singer Foundry in 1969. It was cast in an edition of 2, with one intended as artist's proof.[4] Each one is inscribed Barbara Hepworth with the date 1969.[4] It is listed as BH 473 in Hepworth's catalogue raisonné.[5]

In 1970, one of the casts of Three Obliques (Walk In) was exhibited in the second outdoor sculpture exhibition in Syon Park, London. The sculpture remained on display in the park until 1972.[6]

Individual casts

An edition in the collection of the ExxonMobil Foundation was sold at auction at Sotheby's in New York in 2006 for $1.4 million.[4] The ExxonMobil Foundation had acquired the piece from the London art gallery Gimpel Fils in 1972.[4] The property developer Martin Selig acquired the cast in 2006; it is displayed at 635 Elliott West in the Lower Queen Anne district of Seattle.[7]

One of the casts was donated to the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, in New York; it was acquired from the medical center by a private owner in 2007 before being displayed at Chatsworth House, on the estate of the Dukes of Devonshire prior to its auction by Sotheby's in 2015.[8][3]

The third cast is displayed outside the Cardiff University School of Music.[4] The Cardiff cast has been listed Grade II by Cadw since October 2010.[1]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Three Obliques (Walk In).
  1. 1 2 "Cof Cymru – National Historic Assets of Wales – Full Report for Listed Buildings – Sculpture in forecourt of Department of Music, Cardiff University". Cadw – Cof Cymru. Archived from the original on 29 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "Three Oblique Forms (February)". Hepworth Wakefield. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "Dame Barbara Hepworth THREE OBLIQUES (WALK-IN)". Sotheby's. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Dame Barbara Hepworth THREE OBLIQUES (WALK-IN)". Sotheby's. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  5. ↑ "Dame Barbara Hepworth Selected sculptures Three Obliques (Walk In)". Barbara Hepworth. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  6. ↑ Correia, Alice (Autumn 2014). "Barbara Hepworth and Gimpel Fils: The Rise and Fall of an Artist-Dealer Relationship". Tate papers. No. 22. Tate. ISSN 1753-9854.
  7. ↑ "Art Collection Three Obliques". Martin Selig. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  8. ↑ Geraldine Fabrikant (28 October 2015). "Sculpture Gets Its Day in the Sun as Prices Rise". New York Times. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
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