Close-up detail of "Conversation with Magic Stones" (1973), Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden, St, Ives, Cornwall, UK

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Conversation with Magic Stones was the culmination of Dame Barbara Hepworth's recurrent treatment of the theme of human interaction by means of multi-part sculpture. It consists of six discrete elements: three vertical, which the artist described as 'figures', and three horizontal called 'stones'. Hepworth was interested in primitive cultures, and had 'closely pondered the simple configurations of magical societies'. She described the 'figures' in terms of 'the static majesty of totems ... the Cycladic ... [and] a memory of menhirs'.

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Size: 3413px × 5120px
Location: Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden, St. Ives. Cornwall, UK
Photo credit: © will Perrett / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

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