A bronze sculpture by Barbara Hepworth that had been languishing in a headmasters office for more than 60 years is to go on sale—with the funds raised going towards art student bursaries.
The polished bronze artwork, Single Form (1962), was found at the independent Bryanston School in Dorset by an archivist who had recently been hired to catalogue the school’s contents ahead of its centenary celebrations in 2028.
The school’s current headteacher, Richard Jones, told The Art Newspaper that the piece was originally donated by Hepworth to an auction for the charity Save the Children in 1963. It was bought by a former governor at Bryanston who later bequeathed it to the school in the late 60s with the aim that it would inspire the pupils. However it ended up in the headteacher’s office. Jones says: “Over the years, it seems people didn’t always know the backstory behind it, or that it even was a Hepworth. We kind of lost track of that, and the Hepworth estate also lost track of it after the auction. It was only when it was recently identified that we realised what we had.”
Barbara Hepworth donated Single Form (1962) to an auction for UK charity Save the Children
Courtesy of Bryanston School
The school’s artistic alumni include the British designer Terence Conan and the painters Howard Hodgkin and Lucien Freud. The work has now been put on display for it to fulfil its original purpose of inspiring students, but will be sold at Dukes auction house in April.
This isn’t the first time a Hepworth sculpture has been auctioned off by a school to raise funds. In 2016 two Hepworth works, the copper Forms in Movement (Galliard) (1956) and Quiet Form, carved in marble in 1973, raised £2.2m—double their asking price—when sold at Sotheby's. Hepworth, who was made a dame in 1965, had sold them at a reduced price to her former school, Wakefield’s Girls High School in Yorkshire. The 2016 auction sparked criticism from Wakefield's member of parliament as well as former pupils who opposed the sale of its cultural heritage.
Jones said he didn't know how much Single Form would raise but that the school had wrestled with their decision to sell. He says: “We have thought long and hard what the most significant impact it can have, with the absolute commitment being that every penny raised will be put into art bursaries at Bryanston.”
He acknowledged that there have been cuts to arts education across the country and with VAT now being applied to independent schools, the number of bursaries could be affected. He added: “Whoever is lucky enough to get this piece will also be making a transformational difference to the world of the arts.”
