Pierced Hemisphere

Barbara Hepworth carved “Pierced Hemisphere” from white marble into a form that similarly takes the form of a half sphere rolled slightly backwards so that its flat face is presented at an angle. Hepworth used the oval, sphere and hemisphere and the pierced form frequently in her works until her death in 1975. Although these sculptures are largely abstract in appearance, in her 1971 autobiography the artist explained that ‘The closed form, such as the oval, spherical or pierced form… translates for me the association and meaning of gesture in landscape’.