The sculpture was one of the first works completed by Hepworth after the birth of her triplets with Ben Nicholson in October 1934. It marks a point of departure in her style: her earlier abstract works are based on the human form, but Three Forms is more purely abstract, reduced to simple geometric shapes with little colour. Her subsequent work continued in a more formal, abstract and non-representational vein. Hepworth wrote in 1952 that she became "absorbed in the relationships in space, in size and texture and weight, as well as the tensions between forms".

Three Forms
Seravezza marble
1935
Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)
UK

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Henry Moore studied at the Royal Academy of Art in London, yet he soon defied traditional academic methods. Moore abandoned the use of clay preparatory models and began to carve directly into the surface of stone and wood; he sought to enhance the inherent characteristics of his natural materials. Massive pre-Columbian and Neolithic stone carvings, as well as the experimental abstract forms of avant-garde artists such as Jean Arp, strongly influenced Moore. He focused on the feminine figure as an archetype of earthiness, fertility, and nurture. Composition is an early example of Moore's use of interlocking biomorphic forms: both the open cavities and the curvilinear, organic forms suggest anatomical features. Moore's gentle abstractions often recall the undulating hills of his native English countryside and thus further his equation of women with nature.

Composition
carved beechwood
1932
Henry Moore (1898-1986)
UK

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Falling Warrior
1956/57
Henry Spencer Moore
English, 1898-1986

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