Dame Barbara Hepworth

(British, 1903-1975)

Mincarlo 34.2 cm. (13 1/2 in.) high (including the base) Conceived and cast in 1971

Footnotes

Provenance
With Marlborough Fine Art, London, December 1972, where acquired by
Peter Curry Esq.
Sale; Sotheby's, London, 1 December 1999, lot 63
The Late Countess Poulett

Exhibited
St Ives, Penwith Gallery, Penwith Society of Arts Spring 1972 Exhibition, March-June 1972, cat.no.5 (another cast)
Toronto, Marlborough Godard Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: Carvings and Bronzes, May 1973, cat.no.8 (another cast)
London, William Darby, Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975, 10-28 November 1975, cat.no.10 (another cast)

We are grateful to Dr. Sophie Bowness for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

'I arranged in my studio, opposite my bed, a mirror which reflects
the rising morning sun – for half an hour with incredible splendour
this moving & focused source of light travels slowly over the nine
sculptures in its path – Hollows & piercings, forms within forms, strings
& features, volume & space are animated to a new vibration of life &
every form & contour, known so intimately by my hands, reveals its
proper significance'

(Barbara Hepworth letter to Herbert Read, January 1953 in Sophie
Bowness, Barbara Hepworth: The Sculptor in the Studio, London,
2017, p. 28)

The present work is at once abstract but as ever for Hepworth, rooted
in nature. With its multiple circular forms (both internally and as a
whole) it brings to mind the sun and celestial forms. This is reinforced
through the highly-polished patina allowing for light to pass over and
through but also to reflect from one plane to another. Hepworth began
piercing her carvings as early as 1931 and this preoccupation was to
span her entire career in all mediums, as in Mincarlo. Here the viewer
is presented with three large interlocking bronze spheres with a six
further open circles penetrating their polished surfaces. Criss-crossing
these are strings, themselves crossing over and under one another,
making for a complex and visually arresting form that can be enjoyed
from all angles.

We are grateful to Dr. Sophie Bowness for her assistance in
cataloguing this lot.