Manual Ref* NFnrNOR009 Show 4 images 10
Title*

Sea Form (Atlantic)
County Norfolk   District Council Norwich City Council 
Civil Parish or equivalent Norwich City Council  Town/Village* Norwich 
Road St George's Square 
Precise Location In newly formed piazza in front of Playhouse 
OS Grid Ref TG230089  Postcode NR1 
Previous location(s) In former moat of Castle Gardens 
Setting In public square  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Barbara Hepworth  Sculptor(s)   
Morris Singer  Foundry   

Commissioned by

 Purchased by Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service, GRANT-AID Gulbenkian Foundation & Victoria and Albert Museum 1968 

Design & Constrn period

 1964 

Date of installing

 1968 and re-installed 2008 

Exact date of unveiling

  

Category
Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type
Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type: Free-standing statue

Subject Type
Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type
Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Sea Form  Bronze  H 198 cms W 129 cms D 24 cms 
Base  Stone  H 30 cms W 150 cms D 50 cms 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Norfolk Museums and Archaelogy Service (1967.816.967) 

Listing status
Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition
Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail: Cleaned and waxed in 1997; restored 2008; there are now only a few traces of the green paint on the inside of the openings, shown in photos of 1966

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks On top of bronze plinth: Barbara Hepworth 1964 3/6 On front bronze of plinth: Morris Singer Founders London 
Inscriptions On base: SEA FORM ATLANTIC 1964/ BARBARA HEPWORTH 1903 - 75 

Description (physical)

 The sculpture is gently curved with a beautifully rendered surface of greenish bronze. It is penetrated by two sets of openings to allow views through - two larger ones near the centre complemented by three smaller ones to the right. It is intended for a frontal view. As the inscription on the plinth suggests it is the third of six versions in public collections (+ one unnumbered remaining with the artist). On its purchase Sea Form Atlantic was displayed in the former moat of the Castle Gardens (shown in the last of the photographs) on a site used by the Norwich Twenty Group for regular exhibitions of their work. Far from welcoming the commission to one of the country's outstanding artists they grumbled that the municipal response was to turn away from this local enterprise towards the central artistic establishment ( Nobbs, G. & Wood, H., Davenport's Norwich, Norwich, 1971 p.20). In 2008 the sculpture was moved to its new site to complete the pedestrianisation of the area around St Andrew’s Hall and the Norwich University College of the Arts (the former Norwich Art School). Sea Form Atlantic was first displayed with the smoother side facing the spectator in Castle Gardens, with the more rugged site towards the steps up to the Castle. Castle Gardens proved a remote site, and few were aware the the City owned a public sculpture by Hepworth. The new site addresses this, and the ease with which it could have been loaded onto a lorry and removed, surrounding it with seating opposite the Playhouse. In its new setting the sculpture has been reversed, to display the facetted cutting of the main opening, the view shown in the two photographs in the 1971 Complete Sculpture. The change underlines that the statue works exceptionally well from both viewpoints and should make it more accessible, but at a price, since the new site has not been thought out and the result is disappointing by comparison with its setting against the Castle mound with the great Norman Keep behind. 

Description (iconographical)

 Barbara Hepworth’s account of her work in John Read’s 1961 film on her work are relevant to Sea Form (Atlantic): ‘The forms which have had special meaning for me since childhood have been the standing form (which is the translation of my feeling towards the human being standing in landscape); the two forms (which is the tender relationship of one living thing beside another); and the closed form, such as the oval, spherical or pierced form (sometimes incorporating colour) which translates for me the association and meaning of gesture in landscape [...].’ ‘I became more and more pre-occupied with the inside and outside of forms as I had been in the late 1930's, but on a bigger scale. I wanted to make forms to stand on hillsides and through which to look to the sea. Forms to lie down in, or forms to climb through.’ Sea Form (Atlantic) was the third in a series of six sculptures prompted by the landscape of Cornwall, where she had moved in 1939, with its Atlantic background and by its ancient menhirs. This is combined with reference to the tradition of figurative sculpture in the larger pair of openings which suggest a body with its smaller head. 

Photographs

 Date taken:  12/4/2006
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  15/5/2006

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke

Sources and References

 barbarahepworth.org.uk/texts/ accessed 24/02/2010; Barnes, Richard : 2002 : The Year of Public Sculpture, Norfolk 41; www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5, 04/12/05; Bowness, Alan, ed., Complete Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth 1960-69, London Cat. 362 and pls. 103 and 4 

Database

 Date entered:  20/6/2006

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke