Skip to main content
University of Cambridge

Open: Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm

We are closed on Bank Holiday Mondays

Please note the house will be temporarily closed for 4 weeks from 14 March 2024

Book Tickets

Open: Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm

We are closed on Bank Holiday Mondays

Please note the house will be temporarily closed for 4 weeks from 14 March 2024

Barbara Hepworth © Bowness. Photo: Kettle's Yard

Drawing

Turning Form, 1957

Barbara Hepworth
Pen and ink on paper
360 x 250 mm
[BH 4]
On display

About the artist

Born 1903 – Died 1975

Read the full biography

DISCOVER MORE

This drawing shares the title with one of two sculptures made by Barbara Hepworth for the 1951 Festival of Britain, to be sited by Fry, Drew & Partners’ Thames-side Restaurant. Despite the six-year gap, the drawing and sculpture have formal associations, making it possible that the former deliberately recalled the latter. The sculpture has rising curved planes from which curved areas have been cut. From certain angles these appear to reach a point where they meet the profile of the curve. These qualities seem to be recalled in the drawing, where the planes are described by swift ink arcs meeting at points. The sculpture matched its name by being mounted on a rotating, motor-driven plinth. Even this is implicit in the drawing, where the balancing of the angled planes onto two lower points is given a sense of rotation by the lowest ink-and-wax line.

RELATED ARTWORKS

Painting

Two Figures, Yellow and Brown, 1947

Barbara Hepworth

Two Figures, Yellow and Brown Find out more

Sculpture

Three Personages, 1965

Barbara Hepworth

Three Personages Find out more

Sculpture

Maquette for Garden Sculpture, 1951

Barbara Hepworth

Maquette for Garden Sculpture Find out more

Print

Pastorale, 1969

Barbara Hepworth

Pastorale Find out more