''Meridian'' (BH 250) is a bronze sculpture by British artist

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a lea ...

. It is an early example of her public commissions, commissioned for State House, a new 16-storey office block constructed at 66–71

High Holborn High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and ...

, London, in the early 1960s. The sculpture was made in 1958–59, and erected in 1960. When the building was demolished in 1990, the sculpture was sold and moved to the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens in

Purchase, New York Purchase is a hamlet in the town and village of Harrison, in Westchester County, New York, United States. One myth explains that its name is derived from Harrison's purchase, where John Harrison was to be granted as much land as he could ride in ...

. The sculpture resembles a distorted spiral with ribbons of bronze forming triangular loops. Hepworth intended the fluid lines of the sculpture to contrast with the rigidity of the building's rectilinear architecture. The title of the work refers either to an imaginary line of longitude (like the

Greenwich meridian The historic prime meridian or Greenwich meridian is a geographical reference line that passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, England. The modern IERS Reference Meridian widely used today is based on the Greenwich mer ...

), or to the highest point reached by the Sun. It was influenced by Tachism, a French style of abstract art, and it may have been inspired by a work titled ''1953, August 11 (meridian)'' painted a few years before by Hepworth's former second husband, the artist

Ben Nicholson Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscape and still-life. Background and training Nicholson was born on 10 April 1894 in Den ...

. Earlier in her career, Hepworth preferred to work directly in wood and stone, but from the mid-1950s she started to work more indirectly in bronze using preparatory models. In 1958, Lilian Somerville of the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh la ...

was organising an exhibition at the

São Paulo Art Biennial The São Paulo Art Biennial ( Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...

in late 1959 (where Hepworth would win the Grand Prix). Somerville suggested Hepworth to the architect

Harold Mortimer Harold may refer to: People * Harold (given name), including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Harold (surname), surname in the English language * András Arató, known in meme culture as "Hide the Pain Harold" Arts ...

from Trehearne & Norman Preston & Partners responsible for State House; he had been considering other sculptors, including

Lynn Chadwick Lynn Russell Chadwick, (24 November 1914 – 25 April 2003) was an English sculptor and artist. Much of his work is semi-abstract sculpture in bronze or steel. His work is in the collections of MoMA in New York, the Tate in London and t ...

. Mortimer commissioned Hepworth to create a sculpture to fill a space near the main entrance of the new building. She made a first maquette – a plaster model (BH 245) – and then a second maquette – ''Maquette (Variation on a Theme)'' (BH 247) – each of which was later cast in bronze in an edition of 9. She moved on to a one-third scale model, ''Garden Sculpture (Model for Meridian)'' (BH 246), high, made using an armature of expanded aluminium covered with plaster, cast in an edition of 6 by

Morris Singer Morris Singer is a British art foundry, recognised as the oldest fine art foundry in the world. Its predecessor, Singer was established in 1848 in Frome, Somerset, by John Webb Singer, as the Frome Art Metal Works. The Singer Art Foundry was famo ...

in 1960. Finally, from 1958, she constructed a full-size armature in wood at Lanham's Sale Rooms near her Trewyn Studio in

St Ives, Cornwall St Ives ( kw, Porth Ia, meaning " St Ia's cove") is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent ...

, which was covered with plaster by early 1959. A unique example was cast in bronze in several pieces and then assembled at the

Susse Frères The French firm Susse Frères manufactured a daguerreotype camera which was one of the first two photographic cameras ever sold to the public. The company was also engaged in the foundry business and owned a large foundry in Paris. History Produ ...

foundry in Paris later in 1959, and erected in London in 1960, standing in front of a curved guarding wall of Cornish granite beside the main entrance to State House. The full-size sculpture stands high (46 metres). It was unveiled in March 1960 by Sir Philip Hendy, then Director of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

. Hepworth made relatively little profit on the unique full-size sculpture, defrayed by selling bronzes of the maquettes, but the success of the sculpture led to the commission for '' Winged Figure'', still displayed outside the John Lewis building in Oxford Street. When State House was demolished in 1990 to make way for MidCity Place, the sculpture was sold and moved to the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens at the world headquarters of

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the man ...

(which also has an example of her 1970 sculpture ''

Family of Man ''The Family of Man'' was an ambitious exhibition of 503 photographs from 68 countries curated by Edward Steichen, the director of the New York City Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) Department of Photography. According to Steichen, the exhibitio ...

'').

References

''Meridian''
barbarahepworth.org.uk
Maquette for State House (''Meridian'')
Christie's, 6 June 2008
Maquette for State House (''Meridian'')
Christie's, 5 May 2011

Sotheby's, 15 November 2011
Maquette for State House (''Meridian'')
Christie's, 17 November 2011
Garden Sculpture (Model for ''Meridian'') 1958
Tate Gallery
Variations on a Theme
British Council
Maquette (Variation on a Theme)
Christie's, 12 December 2012

Sotheby's, 1 April 2014 {{coord missing, Hudson Valley 1960 sculptures Bronze sculptures in New York (state) Sculptures by Barbara Hepworth