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Dame Barbara Hepworth

Construction 1

On Loan
The Ingram Collection Of Modern British Art
$0.00 USD
Sale

B.1903 | D.1975

signed and dated ‘1965’ lower right; signed, inscribed and dated on the reverse
oil and pencil on gesso-prepared board
88.3 x 101 cm (34 3/4 x 39 3/4 in.)
Executed in 1965, in the United Kingdom.

Provenance

Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Ltd., New York
Virginia Lust Gallery, New York
Pace Wildenstein, New York
The Ingram Collection, United Kingdom

Exhibited

Woking, Lightbox Gallery, 2D:3D – Discover the Art of Sculpture: Sculpture & Sculptors’ Drawings from The Ingram Collection, 1 February–1 March 2008

London, Sotheby’s, Sculpture and Sculptors’ Drawings from The Ingram Collection, 10–21 January 2011 Woking, Lightbox Gallery, The Ingram Collection: Diamond Jubilee Exhibition, 6 March–15 April 2012 Wakefield, The Hepworth Wakefield, Barbara Hepworth: A Greater Freedom, 18 April 2015–24 April 2016 London, Phillips, Late Hepworth, 7 July–27 August 2016

Hastings, Jerwood Gallery, Century: 100 Modern British Artists, 23 October 2016–8 January 2017

Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Land | Sea | Life: A British Art Collection, 20 October 2017–17 February 2018 Berwick-upon-Tweed, Berwick Visual Arts (Granary Gallery), Spirited – Women Artists from The Ingram Collection, 26 May–13 October 2018

London, Royal Society of Sculptors, Parallel Lines: Sculpture and Drawing, 13 May–13 July 2019 Cambridge, The Heong Gallery, Downing College, Barbara Hepworth: Divided Circle, 15 November 2019–2 February 2020

Woking, Lightbox Gallery, Redressing the Balance: Women Artists from The Ingram Collection, 11 August–20 September 2020

The Hepworth Wakefield; Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; Tate, St Ives, Barbara Hepworth: Art and Life, 21 May 2021–1 May 2023

Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, Beyond The Canvas: A Celebration of British Sculpture from The Ingram Collection, 1 March-7 June 2025

Literature

Barbara Hepworth and Alan Bowness, Barbara Hepworth Drawings from a Sculptor's Landscape, London, 1966, pl. 70 (illustrated; illustrated on the cover)

A.M. Hammacher, Barbara Hepworth, London, 1968, no. 147, p. 170 (illustrated)

Condition Report

Available upon request

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Essay

Barbara Hepworth painted Construction 1 in 1965, a pivotal year in which she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire and became the first female trustee of the Tate Gallery, but also the year she was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. This abstract composition responds to the theme of the Crucifixion, and together with the related painting Construction II, anticipates a major bronze sculpture, Construction (Crucifixion), completed in 1966–67 (a cast of which stands at Salisbury Cathedral). Both works reflect the deepening of Hepworth's faith during this period of illness. She later described the impulse behind the sculpture: having been very unwell, she wanted to "hang up a circle" in space, an idea she found serene and quiet, even as she acknowledged its power to disturb.

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