Resonant Forms

‘These things are immensely important to me […] My home and my children; listening to music, and thinking about its relation to the life of forms, the need for dancing as recreation, and where dancing links with the actual physical rhythm of carving.’ Barbara Hepworth: Carvings and Drawings, 1952

Resonant Forms explores how artists across generations have been inspired by music and sound, engaging with themes of rhythm, harmony, and resonance. Centred on Barbara Hepworth’s stringed sculptures, the exhibition offers insights into the relationship between sound and form.

Music played a crucial role in Hepworth’s creative life. She excelled at the piano from a young age, counted composers among her friends, and by the 1950s, began naming many of her sculptures after musical forms. For Hepworth, rhythm, structure, and harmony were not confined to sound but fundamental to the language of sculpture. Her forms suggest movement and flow, with sweeping curves and open spaces that mirror the dynamic contrasts found in music.

Many of Hepworth’s stringed works, like Landscape Sculpture (1944), Spring (1966), and Orpheus (1957), reflect these principles through taut metal wires reminiscent of the strings of harps or lyres. Through these works, Hepworth crafted sculptures whose sharp lines evoke the clarity and tension of music. Their careful balance recalls the reverberation of an echo, bridging the sensory worlds of sight and sound.

The exhibition expands on these ideas with a selection of works that embody rhythmic energy, reference musical structures, or respond to sound, movement, or even silence. Sculptural forms suggesting melody, vibrant colour compositions influenced by music, and dynamic installations explore how rhythm and resonance shape our experience of art. Together, these artworks highlight the prevalence of a shared creative language between music and visual art—one rooted in rhythm and harmony.

Works on display include Jadé Fadojutimi’s Ob-sess(h)-ion (2020) that pulses with the energy of the dance music that filled her studio during its creation. Howard Hodgkin’s Learning About Russian Music (1999) transforms sound into vibrant layers of colour, while Brian Wall’s Standing Form I (1958) evokes the sharp improvisational spirit of jazz.

A notable highlight is the newly acquired Sonic Gym — Milky Coiffered Cosmic Compression (2019) by Haegue Yang. This suspended sculpture, composed of hundreds of silver bells, was acquired for Wakefield’s art collection through the Contemporary Art Society x Frieze Collections Fund in 2024 and is on display at the gallery for the first time.