Delos 1971

Editor: This is "Delos" by Barbara Hepworth, the lithograph, at the Tate. The stark yellow background with those severe lines and circles is so striking! How do you interpret this work? Curator: Consider Delos, the mythical island. Hepworth evokes a sense of ancient Greece with the Apollonian sun-yellow ground. The lines, like architectural columns, supporting…what? What do the circles represent to you? Editor: Maybe celestial bodies, or portals? Curator: Perhaps. Hepworth often used circles to signify openings, connections to the landscape. This piece feels like a symbolic map, doesn't it? Editor: Definitely. I'll never look at circles the same way!