Sculpted | Ordovas
I visited this exhibition on a hot weekday lunchtime. It’s a typical offering from this small gallery: small and starry, with a very loose conceit. (This time around, basically, sculptures.) In between the Calder mobile and Warhol silkscreen though, I saw something beautiful.
Barbara Hepworth’s Bronze Form (Patmos), conceived and cast in 1962–63, was made after a visit to the titular Greek island. A version of this work is held in the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St Ives, run by Tate.
The work wraps loosely around a column of air, with four large, curving oval apertures. It seems made to catch and shape wind. It’s as immediately distinctive as Hepworth’s Winged Figure (1963), baking on the sun-scorched wall of the John Lewis building on Oxford Street, nearby.
On an airless London day, it somehow suggested movement and relief. It didn’t dominate the space but invited you in. For a few moments, standing in front of it, I thought I could feel a cooling breeze.
Sculpted is at Ordovas (London). 05 June – 25 July 2025.