Single Form

Series of sculptures by Barbara Hepworth

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Hepworth's sculpture in the pool in front of the 39-story United Nations Secretariat Building in New York Single Form (Memorial) in Battersea Park

Single Form (BH 325) is a monumental bronze sculpture by the British artist Barbara Hepworth. It is her largest work, and one of her most prominent public commissions, displayed since 1964 in a circular water feature that forms a traffic island at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, outside the United Nations Secretariat Building and the Dag Hammarskjöld Library. It is also the largest artwork cast by the Morris Singer foundry.

Copies of a smaller version, Single Form (Memorial) (BH 314),[1] are on public display outside the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., and in Battersea Park in London. The version in Battersea Park was granted a Grade II* listing in January 2016.

## Description

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The sculpture is a largely flat, irregular shape, broadly oval, pierced near the top by a circular hole. The flat surfaces are pitted and scored with three intersecting lines – one broadly vertical, and two broadly horizontal – on each face, reflecting its casting in separate pieces. In 1970, the art critic Edwin Mullins suggested: "it is a torso, it is a profile with an eye, it is an expanse of space in which the sun rises, it is a blade, it is a human hand ... raised flat in a sign of authority, or of salute, or as a gesture of allegiance". In 1974 the art critic Dore Ashton suggested it is a "vision of the cosmos".

## Background

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The work was commissioned by the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation as a memorial to the UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld after his death in an air crash in Africa in 1961. Jacob Blaustein had served as the United States delegate to the United Nations. Hammarskjöld was a collector of Hepworth's works, including her 1937–38 sandalwood sculpture Single Form (BH 103) which he displayed in his United Nations office (now in the Dag Hammarskjöld Museum at Backåkra in Sweden). He had discussed with Hepworth the possibility of her being commissioned for a work at the United Nations Headquarters. She may have started work, expecting a commission, before Hammarskjöld's death: the commission was formally ratified by the United Nations in September 1962.

## Sculpture

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Hepworth had started work that led to the bronze in 1961. Single Form (Chûn Quoit) (BH 311) was cast in bronze in an edition of seven in 1961, with its shape marked with an inscribed circle. Her similar wood sculpture from 1961, Single Form (September) (BH 312), in figured walnut, has a circular depression on one face near the top. It is owned by the Tate Gallery and displayed at the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St Ives, Cornwall. Hepworth was working on the walnut sculpture when she received news of Hammarskjöld's death in September 1961, and named it after that month. Another related work is Hepworth's 1961 bronze Curved Form (Bryher II): a similar shape, pierced with a hole, with copper strings; an example was sold at auction at Christie's in 2013.[2]

She moved the depression, which became a hole, in the larger 10 feet (3.0 m) high Single Form (Memorial) (BH 314) bronze from 1961. Single Form (September) and a plaster model of Single Form (Memorial) were included in the Hepworth exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in May–June 1962. (The year before, Hepworth had completed Meridian, and was working on Maquette (Three Forms in Echelon) for the John Lewis store on Oxford Street, which became Winged Figure.) The first completed bronze of Single Form (Memorial) was included in the open air sculpture exhibition at Battersea Park in 1963. This first cast was shipped to the US in October 1963 and retained by the Blaustein family until 2005, when it was donated to Johns Hopkins University and displayed at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. A second cast was made in 1963, bought by London County Council for 6,000 guineas and installed at Battersea Park in 1964, where it remains on the south shore of the lake. It measures 3.12 by 2 by 0.25 metres (10.24 ft × 6.56 ft × 0.82 ft) .

Hepworth doubled the size of Single Form (Memorial) to create a full-size armature at the Palais de Danse annex to her studio in St Ives in early 1963, in wood covered with plaster. The full-size sculpture was cast in seven pieces and assembled at the Morris Singer foundry in London, the lines on the surface reflecting its casting. It measures 21 feet (6.4 m) high and weighs 5.5 tonnes (5.4 long tons; 6.1 short tons). It was erected in New York in May 1964, standing on a granite plinth near the edge of a circular pool of water, about 100 feet (30 m) in diameter, with a fountain, which had been built with a $50,000 gift from the children of the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands; it was unveiled on 11 June 1964.

## See also

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* United Nations Art Collection
* List of public art in Wandsworth

## Notes

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1. ^ "Single Form (Memorial) | Sculptures | Barbara Hepworth". Retrieved 16 January 2018.
2. ^ "Sale 1122: Modern British Art Evening Sale, 10 July 2013". Christie's. christies.com. Retrieved 23 November 2018.

## References

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* Single Form, barbarahepworth.org.uk
* Sculpture Unveiled at United Nations Headquarters Honours Dag Hammarskjold, unmultimedia.org, 11 June 1964
* Johns Hopkins Magazine, February 2005
* Single Form (Chûn Quoit), barbarahepworth.org.uk
* Single Form (September), barbarahepworth.org.uk
* Single Form (September), Tate Gallery
* Single Form (Memorial), barbarahepworth.org.uk
* Historic England. "Single Form (Memorial) (1430770)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 January 2016.

* v
* t
* e

Barbara Hepworth

Sculptures|

* Three Forms (1935)
* Turning Forms (1950)
* Contrapuntal Forms (1950-51)
* Sea Form (Atlantic) (1954)
* Meridian (1960)
* Figure for Landscape (1960)
* Curved Form (Bryher) (1961)
* Sphere with Inner Form (1963)
* Winged Figure (1963)
* Single Form (1964)
* Square Forms and Circles (1964)
* Elegy III (1966)
* Four-Square (Walk Through) (1966)
* Two Figures (1968)
* Three Obliques (Walk In) (1968)
* Two Forms (Divided Circle) (1969)
* The Family of Man: Figure 2, Ancestor II (1970)

Museums|

* Barbara Hepworth Museum
* The Hepworth Wakefield
* Palais de Danse, St Ives

Related|

* Hepworth Prize for Sculpture
* Unit One
* John Skeaping (first husband)
* Ben Nicholson (second husband)
* Simon Nicholson (son)

* v
* t
* e

Public art and memorials in London

Portrait sculpture

| British/English
royalty|

* Boudica
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* Edward VI
* St Thomas' Hospital: bronze
* stone
* Charles I
* (Interregnum: Oliver Cromwell)
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|

Arts|

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Explorers|

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Nurses|

* Edith Cavell
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Politics|

| British|

| Prime ministers|

* Clement Attlee
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|

Other politicians|

* Robert Clayton
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International|

* Simón Bolívar
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* Bloomsbury
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* Charles de Gaulle
* Haile Selassie†
* John F. Kennedy†
* Abraham Lincoln
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Religion|

* Thomas Becket
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Science and
engineering|

* Joseph Bazalgette
* Isambard Kingdom Brunel
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Social reformers
and humanitarians|

* Thomas Barnardo
* Millicent Fawcett
* Margaret MacDonald
* Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst
* Sylvia Pankhurst
* Robert Raikes
* Raoul Wallenberg

Sport|

* Harry Kane (planned)
* Bobby Moore
* Upton Park—with Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and Ray Wilson
* Wembley

Fictional
characters|

* Paddington Bear
* Peter Pan
* Sherlock Holmes

See also|

* Talking Statues
* Statues in London on Wikimedia Commons

Other monuments and memorials

* 7 July bombings
* Queen Alexandra
* Anti–air war
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* Lady Burdett-Coutts
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* Star and Garter Home
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* Virginia colonists
* Wellington Arch
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* Whittington Stone
* Windrush generation
* Custard Apple (Annonaceae), Breadfruit (Moraceae) and Soursop (Annonaceae)
* National Windrush Monument
* Mary Wollstonecraft

| War memorials|

| Pre-C20|

* Animals in War
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* Gurkhas (1816–)
* Marble Arch
* New Zealand Campaign (1863–1864)
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|

Boer Wars|

* 61st Battery Royal Field Artillery (Woolwich)
* Barnet Boys School
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* Royal Marines

WWI · WWII|

* The Cenotaph

* Africa and the Caribbean
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* Burma Railway
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* Malta
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* New Zealand
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* Submarines
* Women of World War II

| Regimental|

* 24th Division
* Cavalry
* Chindits
* Civil Service Rifles
* Eagle Squadrons
* Fleet Air Arm
* Guards Brigade
* Imperial Camel Corps
* Machine Gun Corps
* Rifle Brigade
* Royal Air Force
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* Royal Fusiliers
* Royal Naval Division
* Royal Tank Regiment

|

Local|

* London Troops

* Arkley
* Bromley
* parish
* Chingford
* Chipping Barnet
* Cockfosters
* Croydon
* East Barnet
* Enfield Town (3 memorials)
* Finchley
* Friern Barnet (parish)
* Fulham
* Golders Green
* Hampstead
* Hampton Wick
* Hendon
* Hornsey
* Islington
* Kingston
* Monken Hadley
* New Barnet
* New Malden
* Paddington
* Poplar
* Rainham
* Richmond
* St Michael, Cornhill (parish)
* St Saviour, Southwark (parish)
* Silvertown
* Streatham
* Twickenham
* Wood Green

Corporate|

* Baltic Exchange
* Bank of England
* British Medical Association
* Dulwich College
* Old
* New
* Great Eastern Railway
* Great Western Railway
* Lincoln's Inn
* London and North Western Railway
* London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
* Pearl Assurance†
* South Suburban Gas Company

Holocaust|

* Victoria Tower Gardens (planned)

* Hyde Park
* Kindertransport

Post-WWII|

* Victims of Communism
* Korean War
* Iraq and Afghanistan

Blue plaques|

* Camden
* Kensington and Chelsea
* City of Westminster

Other works

| Sculptures|

* Atalanta
* The Barbican Muse
* Bellerophon Taming Pegasus
* The Bermondsey Lion
* Big 4‡
* Bull
* The Burghers of Calais
* Christ Child
* Cornerstone
* Crystal Palace Dinosaurs
* The Diver
* Dolphin lamp standards
* Dragon boundary marks
* Elfin Oak
* Enwrought Light
* Father Time
* Fulcrum
* The Gold Smelters
* Gorilla
* The Hampstead Figure
* Homage to Leonardo
* Icarus
* Labyrinth
* Liberty Clock
* London Noses
* London Pride
* The Meeting Place
* The Messenger
* Millennium Dial
* Monolith and Shadow
* The Naked Ladies
* The Neighbours
* Nelson's Ship in a Bottle
* Nike
* Paternoster Vents
* Peckham Arch
* Physical Energy
* Platforms Piece
* Pope's Urn
* Putney Sculpture Trail
* The Queen's Beasts
* The Rush of Green
* St Paul's Cross
* Sculpture in the City‡
* Skylon†
* Slipstream
* South Bank Lion
* Still Water
* Tortoises with Triangle and Time
* Traffic Light Tree
* Union (Horse with Two Discs)
* The Watchers
* The World Turned Upside Down
* The Young Lovers

| Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square‡|

* The End
* Hahn/Cock
* Nelson's Ship in a Bottle
* One & Other

|

Elisabeth Frink|

* Blind Beggar and his Dog
* Horse and Rider
* Paternoster

Barbara Hepworth|

* Meridian†
* Single Form (Memorial)
* Two Forms (Divided Circle)†
* Winged Figure

Henry Moore|

* The Arch 1979–1980
* Draped Seated Woman 1957–58
* Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65
* Large Standing Figure (Knife Edge)
* Locking Piece
* Three Standing Figures 1947

Eduardo Paolozzi|

* The Artist as Hephaestus†
* Piscator

The Line‡|

* ArcelorMittal Orbit
* Here
* Quantum Cloud
* Liberty Grip
* A Slice of Reality

Fountains|

* Buxton Memorial
* Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain
* Diana Fountain, Bushy Park
* Diana Fountain, Green Park
* Edward VII Jewish Memorial Fountain
* Henry Fawcett Memorial
* The Horses of Helios
* Guilford Place
* Matilda Fountain
* Poets' Fountain†
* Readymoney Drinking Fountain
* Revolving Torsion
* Roehampton
* St Lawrence Jewry and St Mary Magdalene
* Shaftesbury Memorial ("Eros")
* Lady Henry Somerset Memorial
* Victoria Park

Murals|

* Brixton
* Children at Play
* Cable Street
* Dulwich
* Old Kent Road
* National Covid Memorial Wall
* Poplar Rates Rebellion
* Poured Lines
* Sutton twin towns
* Sutton Heritage Mosaic

| Banksy|

* From this moment despair ends and tactics begin
* Girl with Balloon†
* One Nation Under CCTV†
* Pulp Fiction†
* Slave Labour†

|

Land art|

* Northala Fields

See also|

* Art on the Underground
* Tube map covers
* Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm
* London Mural Preservation Society
* Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association

By location

* City of London
* Barking and Dagenham
* Barnet
* Bexley
* Brent
* Bromley
* Camden
* Croydon
* Ealing
* Enfield
* Greenwich
* Hackney
* Hammersmith and Fulham
* Haringey
* Harrow
* Havering
* Hillingdon
* Hounslow
* Islington
* Kensington and Chelsea
* Kingston
* Lambeth
* Lewisham
* Merton
* Newham
* Redbridge
* Richmond
* Southwark
* Sutton
* Tower Hamlets
* Waltham Forest
* Wandsworth

City of Westminster|

* Belgravia1
* Covent Garden2
* Green Park
* Hyde Park
* Kensington1
* Kensington Gardens1
* Knightsbridge1
* Mayfair
* Millbank
* Paddington
* Pimlico
* St James's
* St Marylebone
* Soho
* Strand
* Trafalgar Square
* Victoria
* Victoria Embankment3
* Westminster
* Whitehall

* 1 Partly in Kensington and Chelsea
* 2 Partly in Camden
* 3 Partly in the City of London

Key: † No longer extant, on public display or in London (see List of public art formerly in London) * ‡ Changing displays

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