T his standing slate sculpture on a wood base is an exceptional example of Barbara Hepworth's output in her mature career. The ovoid form, biomorphic shape, and pierced hole of the present work are typical of Hepworth’s style: while other modernist artists such as Henry Moore and Naum Gabo also employed the technique of carving hollow openings in their sculptures, Hepworth’s experimentations were revolutionary as early as 1931, when she first carved a hole into pink alabaster and created Pierced Form, later destroyed in the Second World War. Hepworth described the significance of directly carving a hole into a stone, stating that doing so could “reveal [the stone's] depth and its inner tension, and the space in relation to a human being” (quoted in Exh. Cat., New York, Pace, Barbara Hepworth: A Matter of Form, 2018, p. 6)

In the 1960s, Hepworth was focused on exploring three different shapes: the closed form, two forms in juxtaposition, and the standing form. She commenced a series of slate sculptures in 1963, signifying a return to some of her earliest creative concerns—using natural materials for both their innate beauty and flaws. Chris Stephens points out the importance of slate within Hepworth’s oeuvre: "Though rare as a material for sculpture, she embraced the use of slate with particular enthusiasm.” (quoted in Exh. Cat., Valencia, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Barbara Hepworth, 2004, p. 107).

Hepworth’s role as a pioneering modernist cannot be overstated. Hepworth herself was a firm believer in the importance of female artists, stating, “I think that women will contribute a great deal… perhaps especially in sculpture, for there is a whole range of formal perception belonging to feminine experience. So many ideas spring from an inside response to form; for example, if I see a woman carrying a child in her arms it is not so much what I see that affects me, but what I feel within my own body” (quoted in Exh. Cat., London, Tate Gallery, Barbara Hepworth: A Retrospective, 1994, p. 94).

Hepworth was also keenly interested in how sculpture could be a conduit for the interplay between society and the artist. Poised Form with Circle was executed while the artist was living and working at Trewyn Studio in St. Ives, where she resided until her death in 1975. According to her will, her beloved studio would become the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1976 and has been owned and operated by the Tate since 1980. Hepworth spoke of how much she loved Trewyn, “finding [it] was a sort of magic… here was a studio, a yard and garden where I could work in open air and space.” In addition to the considerable holdings of Hepworth’s work in St. Ives as well as the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire, her work is also included in the collects ions of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Storm King Art Center and the United Nations (fig. 1).