- The sculpture has been valued at almost £3.7 million
- Export bar is to allow time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the sculpture
An export bar has been placed on celebrated British artist Dame Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red.
Born in 1903 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Hepworth became one of the leading British artists of the 20th century, creating prominent sculptures for the 1951 Festival of Britain entitled ‘Contrapuntal Forms’, which are still on display in Harlow, Essex and her prestigious work ‘Single Form’, which stands in the plaza of the United Nations building in New York City.
Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red is a painted wood sculpture created in 1943. It is part of a larger series in Hepworth’s oeuvre, which she developed throughout the Second World War after she settled with her family in St. Ives, Cornwall.
The piece is a notable example of this series, which pioneered her stringed and coloured sculptures for the first time. Although this concept of colour and strings is…
