LONDON.- Sotheby’s Modern & Post-War British Art Evening Sale on 22 November will be led by an important and majestic sculpture by Dame Barbara Hepworth. One of the most groundbreaking and forward-thinking artists of her generation, Barbara Hepworth carved a path as a world-recognised sculptor – a stature that no female artist had previously achieved. The monumental Parent I will be offered with an estimate of £2 – 3 million.

Parent I belongs to The Family of Man, a magnificent group of sculptures that are undoubtedly the crowning achievement of Hepworth’s final years – each individually titled with subjects that were clearly of intimate importance within the context of her life, such as Young Girl, Bride, Ancestor I. The series becomes a universal survey of humanity, acknowledging both the civilisations of the past and the present, alongside aspirations for the future.

The monumental standing form, Parent I, is the universal mother of the family and hence one of the central figures of the group. Although abstract and decidedly modern in form, the totemic composition is endowed with a timeless human and spiritual quality. Drawing on her own personal experiences as parent, mother, sculptor and wife, this work unites all of the artist’s principal concerns throughout her life.

The vocabulary of these sculptures is undoubtedly reminiscent of her early works and pierced carvings – Hepworth’s introduction of piercing greatly enriched the possibilities of abstract sculpture by abolishing the concept of a closed, and thus entire, form and brought the individual sculpture firmly into the environment within which it was placed.

Four individual casts were produced of Parent I, with the other three now held in public collections including The Hepworth Wakefield.

Dame Barbara Hepworth, Curved Form with Inner Form (Anima), conceived in 1959, number 6 from the edition of 7 (est. £500,000-700,000)
The sale will also offer the opportunity to acquire a curved form, one of Hepworth’s favoured themes.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Hepworth and her husband Ben Nicholson relocated to St Ives – a small town in Cornwall that had, for decades, attracted artists and sculptors alike. She wandered the beaches, observing the crashing waves and collecting rounded pebbles that soon filled her small studio space. The wave then became an important and recurring motif in her work. Curved Form is an exploration of the inside versus the outside, and the male versus the female, with a bold, densely textured wave form enclosing the softly sinuating circle of the centre.