Barbara Hepworth - Winged Figure

Barbara Hepworth’s Winged Figure can be found on the Holles Street side of John Lewis running at the junction of Oxford Street. It was installed in 1963. 

Initially, Jacob Epstein was asked to come up with a design for the Portland stone, however he had commitments to other commissions and so was unable to do so. In May 1961, Ralph Brown, Geoffrey Clarke, Barbara Hepworth, Anthony Holloway, Stefan Knapp, William Mitchell and Hans Tisdall were all asked to come up with designs, but their original designs were all not accepted.

Hepworth was asked to design "the idea of common ownership and common interests in a partnership of thousands of workers" and in October 1961 came up Three Forms in Echelon, which was rejected. Her second proposed design an enlargement of her 1957 sculpture Winged Figure I, which was accepted. The sculpture was installed on Sunday 21 April 1963 on a plinth and was later restored in 2013 for its 50th anniversary.

The sculpture stands at 5.8 metres high with a pair of wings and rods criss-corssing through a point met at the middle. In 1962, a wood prototype was created and then an aluminium prototype was created with aluminium sheets and ten stainless steel rods, which were coated with Isopon (polyester resin filler). The aluminium prototype can be found at the Hepworth Museum in Wakefield, Yorkshire.

"I think one of our universal dreams is to move in air and water without the resistance of our human legs. I wanted to evoke this sense of freedom. If the Winged Figure in Oxford Street gives people a sense of being airborne in rain and sunlight and nightlight I will be very happy" - Barbara Hepworth