Dyad
About this artwork
Dyad is one of Hepworth's most overtly figurative sculptures. On one side there is the incised profile of a man's head and on the other there is a smaller, female profile. The form suggests that the two figures are embracing. There is no front or back view: both sides are equal. 'Dyad' is a mathematical term meaning 'two'. Hepworth wrote that she 'used it in this sense of the two forms and the two entities,' combined in one figure. Hepworth made her first pierced sculpture in 1931. Here, she uses holes as a way of uniting the two sides of the work.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Barbara HepworthEnglish (1903 - 1975)
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title:Dyad
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date created:1949
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materials:Himalayan rosewood
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measurements:118.00 x 40.50 x 22.00 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased 1963
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accession number:GMA 854
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gallery:
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subject:
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
Barbara Hepworth
Barbara Hepworth
Hepworth studied at Leeds College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. In 1924 she travelled to Italy on a scholarship to study the techniques of marble carving. Her first major exhibition at the Beaux Arts Gallery in 1928 consisted mainly of stone carvings of figures and animals. From 1932...