Dame Barbara HepworthBall, Plane and Hole 1936

The title of this sculpture draws attention to the relationship between solid material and empty space, and to the implied passage of the ball through a plane to leave a hole. The movement is implied here by the placing of wedge, ball and hole.

The natural warmth of wood offsets the purity and simplicity of Hepworth’s forms. As Hepworth’s friend the physicist JD Bernal suggested, it is one of a group of works that ‘bring out the theme of complementary forms, each solid structure being contrasted sharply with a hollow smaller, or larger, than itself.’