Four-Square (Walk Through)
1966
Barbara Hepworth (English, 1903-1975)
On View

Barbara Hepworth redefined sculpture in 1931 when she first pierced a hole through an abstract work of stone. To Hepworth, the incorporation of negative space into a composition was a way to negate any perceived hierarchy between mass and space, and to establish a more balanced, intimate relationship between these two elements. Over the following three decades she continued to develop her work with an increasingly sophisticated interest in the space of sculpture, its position as a three-dimensional object, its engagement with its surroundings, and its relationship to both viewer and sculptor alike.

Hepworth herself had a formidable sense of physicality, and much of her creative output draws on her own spatial presence. Indeed she has referred to her work as her “own sculptural anatomy,” and this relationship is particularly acute in her monumental bronzes created during the 1960s. During that time she began to play with more rectilinear geometries, inviting circular shapes to overlap with angular ones. This approach is not unlike the breakthrough abstract paintings created by her second husband, Ben Nicholson, whom she divorced in 1951 but with whom she shared similar artistic goals. On works like the enormous Four-Square (Walk Through) Hepworth once wrote, “Piercings through forms became dominant. Could I climb through and in what direction? Could I rest, lie, or stand within the forms? Could I, at one and the same time, be the outside as well as the form within?” Indeed, her very being became one with her sculpture, the two impossible to distinguish from one another.

Details

  • Artist Name: Barbara Hepworth (English, 1903-1975)
  • Title: Four-Square (Walk Through)
  • Date: 1966
  • Medium: Bronze
  • Edition: Edition of 3, Cast No. 1
  • Dimensions: 169 x 88 x 78-1/2 in. (429.3 x 223.5 x 199.4 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
  • Accession Number: M.1969.15.S
  • Copyright: © Bowness, Hepworth Estate

Object Information

Barbara Hepworth

  • London, The Tate Gallery, 1968-04-03 to 1968-05-19

[on loan]

  • New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 1969-01-02 to 1970-09-03

[on loan]

  • Los Angeles, University of California at Los Angeles, UCLA Art Galleries, Sculpture Garden, 1972-04-14 to 1975-05-15

[on loan]

  • Palo Alto, Stanford University, Law School, Crown Quadrangle, 1975-05-16 to 1978-06-05

Twentieth Century Sculpture from Southern California Collections

  • Los Angeles, University of California Los Angeles, Dickson Art Center, Art Galleries, 1972-02-27 to 1972-04-14
  • Art Journal, p. 62
  • Tancock, John, The Connoisseur, p. 240
  • Sculpture Garden, Norton Simon Museum, no. 3
  • The Tate Gallery, Barbara Hepworth, no. 172 pp.5, 32
  • Star News, p. A-14
  • Star News,
  • Los Angeles Times, p. 96
  • Wight, Frederick S., 20th Century Sculpture from Southern California Collections, 1972, pp. 64-65
  • Evening Outlook, 1972, p. 19
  • Robinette, Margaret A., Outdoor Sculpture, Object and Environment, 1976, pp. 140-141
  • Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 586 p. 315

Additional Artwork by Artist

Assembly of Sea Forms Barbara Hepworth 1972
Duo (Grey & White) Barbara Hepworth 1973
Oread Barbara Hepworth 1958

Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.

Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.

Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.

Reproduction Request Form