Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
Three Oblique Forms (Walk in), Sculpture in forecourt of School of Music
Cathays, Cardiff, Wales
The record
- Designation
- Listed building, Grade II
- Broad class
- Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces
- Date of designation
- 22 October 2001
- Welsh name
- Three Oblique Forms (Walk in), Cerflun ym mlaengwrt yr Ysgol Cerddoriaeth
- Locality
- Cathays
- Town
- Cardiff
- Community
- Cathays
- Unitary authority
- Cardiff
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates
- 51.48916, -3.18337
- Cadw reference
- 25834
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 5 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1636 "Cornubia : Devonia, Somersetus, Dorcestria, Wiltonia, Glocestria ..." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
Cadw's description
Location
On the W side of the entrance in forecourt of School of Music, Cardiff University.
History
Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) was a renowned British sculptor whose works include the Memorial to Dag Hammarskjöld in front of the United Nations in New York and Contrapuntal Forms, originally for the Dome of Discovery at the Festival of Britain in 1951. Three Oblique Forms (Walk in) is a much-enlarged version of the plaster sculpture Three Oblique Forms (February) created in 1967. Three copies of (Walk in) were cast at Morris Singer Foundry in 1969, one of which was donated to the School of Music for its new building by Alex Gordon & Partners, architects of Cardiff, officially opened in 1971. The other two were sold to private collections.
Exterior
An abstract bronze sculpture on a brick plinth. The composition is a grouping of three trapezoidal wings (c 3m high and c 0.25m thick) fanned across a wide brick plinth. Each wing is pierced by an oculus of height and diameter varied in relation to its neighbours. This sculpture belongs within Hepworth’s artistic credo that her work should "infuse the formal perfection of geometry with the vital grace of nature".
Reason for designation
Listed as a rare public work in Wales by one of the foremost C20 British sculptors, and for Group Value with the School of Music building.
Nearby in the register
- School of Music, Cardiff UniversityEducationunder 1 mi
- Aberdare Hall including attached NE wing at rearDomesticunder 1 mi
- Colonnade and gateways at S end of Queen Anne SquareGardens, Parks and Urban Spacesunder 1 mi
- Cathays Park Welsh Government Offices (Crown Buildings)Civilunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.