Rock Form (Porthcurno)
1964
Barbara Hepworth (English, 1903–1975)
Bronze
Edition of 6, Cast No. 3
Norton Simon Art Foundation
© Bowness, Hepworth Estate
Barbara Hepworth produced Rock Form (Porthcurno) as a response to the coastal landscape of Porthcurno, a town in southwest England near her home and studio. The sculpture’s form abstracts and monumentalizes the region’s seaside caves, with their distinctive perforations created by the ebbs and flows of the tides. “They were experiences of people,” she said of the sculpture and related works from this period, and “the movement of people in and out is always a part of them.” Recently installed in the Entrance Gallery, Rock Form (Porthcurno) welcomes visitors to the Museum and marks a new threshold between the galleries and the pond beyond them.
Barbara Hepworth’s Rock Form (Porthcurno) in the Main Entrance Gallery
In 2023, a new installation appeared in the Entrance Gallery. After two decades of welcoming visitors to the Museum, the great sandstone sculpture of Buddha Shakyamuni was relocated to the nearby Rotunda Gallery to ensure its seismic stabilization. In its place, Rock Form (Porthcurno) was moved from the Sculpture Garden to the center of the lobby after conservation work to restore its eye-catching patina. An article in the Norton Simon Museum’s newsletter outlined the conservator’s process: John Griswold, Head of Conservation and Installations, studied related sculptures in the collections of the Tate Modern and Tate St. Ives, near Barbara Hepworth’s studio, before beginning treatment on Rock Form’s darkened surface. Visitors can now admire the organic qualities of Hepworth’s form as it was originally intended to be seen.
