Project (Spring Morning)

In a notebook of 1961, Hepworth identified the disparate qualities she associated with ‘metal and its properties’; ‘fire, running metal, molten – passionate, arrested movement – inducement of sound and resonance’, distinguishing these from sculptures made with ‘sheet [metal] under tension’, which she linked to ‘related rhythms of curves’. This focus on movement is echoed in her paintings of this period, which show a dramatic shift from controlled geometric lines to expressive brushstrokes and dynamic forms.