Two Forms (Orkney 1967), Carved Slate, Barbara Hepworth

This sculpture, by Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), is an expression of the British landscape and symbolic of the close friendship between Hepworth and the artist and founder of the Pier Arts Centre, Margaret Gardiner (1904-2005). Two Forms had been in a private Swiss collection since the 1980s and had been exhibited only once in the UK, in 1967. The NHMF grant allowed the Pier Arts Centre to acquire the sculpture when it was imported into the UK to be sold.