Moving Big Stuff: the Barbara Hepworth sculpture
Posted on: 18 August 2023 by Amanda Draper, Curator of Art and Exhibitions in 2023
As an art curator, most of the artworks I look after are fairly portable. Sometimes it takes a couple of people to move something, but often just one. Occasionally however, it takes a specialist team with a radio-controlled crane and a lot of skill. The recent relocation of our prize Barbara Hepworth sculpture was one such occasion.
Squares with Two Circles outside the Sydney Jones library in the 1960s
First location
Our Barbara Hepworth bronze sculpture, Squares with Two Circles (1964), was purchased by the University with the support of the Arts Council in 1967. On arrival at the University, the sculpture was erected near the entrance of the newly opened Sydney Jones library high on an elevated plinth specially designed by the artist. It lived there quite happily for almost fifty years.
Barbara Hepworth
Barbara Hepworth, 1966. Photo by Erling Mandelmann (Creative Commons licence)
You may be wondering what is so important about this sculpture, so let’s start with the artist. Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE (1903 – 1975) was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire. She attended Leeds School of Art and then the Royal College of Art in London. From then, she went on to become one of the foremost Modernist sculptors in the world. She moved to St Ives in 1939 with her then husband, artist Ben Nicholson, and remained living and working from her Trewyn Studio complex for the rest of her life. By the 1930s, Hepworth had adopted a completely abstract style, often incorporating pierced shapes through geometric forms or organic shapes. Hepworth was to attribute this artistic shift to having triplets in 1934, after which she said she was “ …absorbed in the relationships in space, in size and texture and weight, as well as the tensions between the forms.” Hepworth was a prolific artist, working in stone, especially marble, and metal, especially bronze. Her many high-profile commissions included a pierced, free-form bronze called Single Form installed in the United Nations Plaza in New York in 1964.
Squares with Two Circles from Tate collection at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo by Neil Theasby (Creative Commons licence)
Our edition of Squares with Two Circles is believed to have come from the artist’s own collection and is numbered 0/3 so can be classed as an ‘artist’s proof copy’. There are another three editions of the bronze, one of which is in Tate’s collection and is on display at Yorkshire Sculpture Park; another is in the collection of the Kröller Müller Museum in the Netherlands and the third is now at the Nasher Sculpture Centre in Texas. The sculpture is 310cm high by 159cm wide and 76cm deep and was cast by the Morris Singer Foundry, which has been in business since 1848. The sculpture takes the form of two perpendicular squares on one side with one hole pierced through each, and three Squares on the other side which are off-set. According to a Tate Gallery Report from the 1960s, Hepworth said she “... was interested in the proportion of the sculpture in relation to the human figure, and the apertures are replaced in relation to human vision.” Certainly, looking through the apertures allows the viewer to glimpse the sky, landscape or cityscape in a unique way, like looking through a porthole in the air.
Squares with Two Circles outside Central Teaching Hub on Crown Square, VG&M in the distance
Second location
In 2014 the decision was taken to move the Hepworth sculpture away from the side of the library into the newly developed Crown Square on the University campus. The library had been remodelled and main entrance changed, so there were no longer many people passing and seeing the sculpture. The new location would be at ground level, more akin to the way the other editions of Squares with Two Circles were being displayed, and it was a busy interchange where it was a central part of the layout. However, within only a few years there were rumblings about moving the sculpture back to the library; various discussions and meetings were held but nothing concrete happened about it until 2023.
Chris cuts through the fixtures to free the sculpture
Back to original location
In March 2023, a decision was taken that the Hepworth sculpture had to be moved from Crown Square to facilitate groundworks and installation of piping. Where should it go? Back to its original site was the answer. The project was co-ordinated with the University’s Facilities Management department as part of wider development for the library and Crown Square. We engaged Castle Fine Art Foundry to undertake the move, led by their very able Director, Chris Butler. Luckily for us, it was Chris who moved the sculpture in 2014 so knew all about the mysterious subterranean fixtures and the best way to lift it. He was greatly assisted by the crane driver/operator Roger from Dawsons Structural Engineering of Llanymynech. My colleague Ben also helped and I mostly just stood around in a hi-vis jacket looking worried.
Airborne sculpture lowered on to wagon. Anxious curator looks on.
After a lot of planning by Chris, the Great Move Day came around. Chris had to cut through the existing fixtures under the sculpture and then loop straps hanging from the crane through the top aperture and then begin the lift. The sculpture rose into the sky and swung gently over our heads to be laid on the flat bed area of the wagon. It was tied down and then reversed down a narrow pathway (with millimetres to spare on either side), across a main road and parked parallel to its new/old site. It was then craned off the wagon and laid on the ground so Chris could weld on new fixings. Then back into the sky again to be swung over the original plinth, lowered into position and secured in place. I make it sound quick and easy but it was several hours of a job and a lot of hard work by Chris and Roger.
Sculpture lowered into final position back at the library
Hopefully, Squares with Two Circles will be staying put for many years and will be enjoyed by all who see it.
Further information:
Tate on Squares with Two Circles
Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden St Ives
Barbara Hepworth official website
Keywords: Barbara Hepworth, Squares with Two Circles, Large sculpture.