Four Rectangles with Four Oblique Circles

In 1966, Barbara Hepworth was at the apogee of her fame, having recently completed the sculpture Single Form for the plaza of the United Nations Secretariat in New York. The viewing public had grown more receptive to abstract sculpture. In an interview in 1962, Hepworth said, "It is easy now to communicate with people through abstraction, and particularly so in sculpture since the whole body reacts to its presence . . . people become themselves a living part of the work." Hepworth was speaking here primarily of the many over­life-sized sculptural groupings she created. But the viewer could also engage on a physical level with smaller tabletop works, such as Four Rectangles with Four Oblique Circles. Walking around the sculpture, the various elements rearrange themselves according to our angle of vision. And the eye­like holes in each element create different vantage points on the world around us.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2020

Credit Line: Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Susan Morse Hilles