Barbara Hepworth

Single Form

Single Form, 1961-4, bronze, 21 feet in height (6.4 metres), United Nations Building, New York.

Single Form is Hepworth's largest work and her most significant public commission. It stands in the United Nations Plaza in New York. Hepworth was a friend of the United Nations secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld, who admired and collected her work (including a Single Form in sandalwood of 1937-8, BH 103). Single Form was commissioned by the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation as a memorial to Hammarskjöld after his tragic death in an air crash in 1961.

Single Form

Hepworth working on the armature of Single Form in the Palais de Danse, January 1963

Single Form

The plaster for Single Form at the Morris Singer foundry. Photograph by Morgan-Wells

Single Form

Work in progress on the bronze cast of Single Form at the Morris Singer foundry

Single Form

Final stage at Morris Singer foundry, April 1964. Photograph by Morgan-Wells

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Erection of Single Form at the United Nations in New York, May 1964

Single Form

Unveiling ceremony for Single Form, United Nations Secretariat, New York, 11 June 1964

Single Form

Single Form at the United Nations Secretariat, 11 June 1964