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Barbara Hepworth

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Use list-defined references Template:Infobox artist Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture.<ref name=gale/> Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St Ives during the Second World War.

Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, Hepworth studied at Leeds School of Art and the Royal College of Art in the 1920s. She married the sculptor John Skeaping in 1925. In 1931 she fell in love with the painter Ben Nicholson, and in 1933 divorced Skeaping. At this time she was part of a circle of modern artists centred on Hampstead, London, and was one of the founders of the art movement Unit One.

At the beginning of the Second World War Hepworth and Nicholson moved to St Ives, Cornwall, where she would remain for the rest of her life. Best known as a sculptor, Hepworth also produced drawings – including a series of sketches of operating rooms following the hospitalisation of her daughter in 1944 – and lithographs. She died in a fire at her studio in 1975.

BiographyEdit

Early lifeEdit

Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest child of Gertrude and Herbert Hepworth.<ref name="bio" /> Her father was a civil engineer for the West Riding County Council, who in 1921 advanced to the role of county surveyor.<ref name="bio" /> Hepworth attended Wakefield Girls' High School, where she was awarded music prizes at the age of 12<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref name="hepworth1970">Template:Cite book</ref> and won a scholarship to study at the Leeds School of Art from 1920. It was there that she met her fellow Yorkshireman, Henry Moore.<ref name="bio" /> They became friends and established a friendly rivalry that lasted professionally for many years.

Despite the difficulties of attempting to gain a position in what was a male-dominated environment,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Hepworth successfully won a county scholarship to attend the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London and studied there from 1921 until she was awarded the diploma of the Royal College of Art in 1924.<ref name="ccc" />

Early careerEdit

File:1932 Barbara Hepworth Pierced Form, Paul Laib, photographer, courtauld museum.jpg
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Following her studies at the RCA, Hepworth travelled to Florence, Italy, in 1924 on a West Riding Travel Scholarship.<ref name=gale/> Hepworth was also the runner-up for the Prix-de-Rome, which the sculptor John Skeaping won.<ref name=gale/> After travelling with him to Siena and Rome, Hepworth married Skeaping in May 1925 in Florence.<ref name=bio/> In Italy, Hepworth learned how to carve marble from sculptor Giovanni Ardini.<ref name=bio/> Hepworth and Skeaping returned to London in 1926, where they exhibited their works together from their flat.<ref name=bio/> Their son Paul was born in London in 1929.<ref name=gale/> In 1931, Hepworth met and fell in love with abstract painter Ben Nicholson; however, both were still married at the time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Hepworth filed for divorce from Skeaping that year;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> they were divorced in March 1933.<ref name=bio/>

Her early work was highly interested in abstraction and art movements on the continent. In 1931, Hepworth was the first to sculpt the pierced figures that are characteristic of both her own work and, later, that of Henry Moore.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They would lead in the path to modernism in sculpture. In 1933, Hepworth travelled with Nicholson to France, where they visited the studios of Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, and Constantin Brâncuși.<ref name=bio/> Hepworth later became involved with the Paris-based art movement, Abstraction-Création.<ref name=eb/> In 1933, Hepworth co-founded the Unit One art movement with Nicholson and Paul Nash, the critic Herbert Read, and the architect Wells Coates.<ref name=nash/> The movement sought to unite Surrealism and abstraction in British art.<ref name=nash/>

Hepworth also helped raise awareness of continental artists amongst the British public. In 1937, she designed the layout for Circle: An International Survey of Constructivist Art, a 300-page book that surveyed Constructivist artists and that was published in London and edited by Nicholson, Naum Gabo, and Leslie Martin.<ref name=peggy/>

Hepworth, with Nicholson, gave birth to triplets in 1934: Rachel, Sarah, and Simon. Hepworth, atypically, found a way to both take care of her children and continue producing her art. "A woman artist", she argued, "is not deprived by cooking and having children, nor by nursing children with measles (even in triplicate) – one is in fact nourished by this rich life, provided one always does some work each day; even a single half hour, so that the images grow in one's mind."<ref name="guardian"/> Hepworth married Nicholson on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office in north London, following his divorce from his wife Winifred.<ref name=alan/> Rachel and Simon also became artists.<ref name=riggs/>

St IvesEdit

File:Barbara Hepworth monolyth empyrean.jpg
Monolith-Empyrean, 1953.

Hepworth, Nicholson and their children went to live in Cornwall at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.<ref name=tate/><ref name="Phaidon Editors">Template:Cite book</ref> She lived in Trewyn Studios in St Ives from 1949 until her death in 1975. Trewyn Studios had once been an outbuilding of Trewyn House, later purchased by her pupil and assistant John Milne in 1956.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=tate/> She said that "Finding Trewyn Studio was sort of magic. Here was a studio, a yard, and garden where I could work in open air and space."<ref name=tate/> St Ives had become a refuge for many artists during the war. On 8 February 1949, Hepworth and Nicholson co-founded the Penwith Society of Arts at the Castle Inn; 19 artists were founding members, including Peter Lanyon and Bernard Leach. <ref name=penwith/>

Hepworth was also a skilled draughtsperson. After her daughter Sarah was hospitalised in 1944, she struck up a close friendship with the surgeon Norman Capener.<ref name="pallant2012">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At Capener's invitation, she was invited to view surgical procedures and, between 1947 and 1949, she produced nearly 80 drawings of operating rooms in chalk, ink, and pencil.<ref name="pallant2012"/><ref name="hepburn2013">Template:Cite book</ref> Hepworth was fascinated by the similarities between surgeons and artists, stating: "There is, it seems to me, a close affinity between the work and approach of both physicians and surgeons, and painters and sculptors."<ref name="pallant2012"/>

In 1950, works by Hepworth were exhibited in the British Pavilion at the XXV Venice Biennale<ref name=bio/> alongside works by Matthew Smith and John Constable.<ref name=british/> The 1950 Biennale was the last time that contemporary British artists were exhibited alongside artists from the past.<ref name=british/> Two early public commissions, Contrapunctal Forms and Turning Forms, were exhibited at the Festival of Britain in 1951.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During this period, Hepworth and Nicholson divorced (1951).<ref name=riggs/> Hepworth moved away from working only in stone or wood and began to work with bronze and clay.<ref name=tate/> Hepworth often used her garden in St Ives, which she designed with her friend the composer Priaulx Rainier, to view her large-scale bronzes.<ref name=tate/>

Death of her son PaulEdit

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Her eldest son Paul was killed on 13 February 1953 in a plane crash while serving with the Royal Air Force in Thailand.<ref name=stephens/> A memorial to him, Madonna and Child, is in the parish church of St Ives.<ref name=bio1/>

Exhausted, in part from her son's death, Hepworth travelled to Greece with her friend Margaret Gardiner in August 1954.<ref name=stephens/> They visited Athens, Delphi and many of the Aegean Islands.<ref name=stephens/>

When Hepworth returned to St Ives from Greece in August 1954 she found that Gardiner had sent her a large shipment of Nigerian guarea hardwood.<ref name = stephens/> Although she received only a single tree trunk, Hepworth noted that the shipment from Nigeria to the Tilbury docks came in at 17 tons.<ref name = stephens/> Between 1954 and 1956 Hepworth sculpted six pieces out of guarea wood, many of which were inspired by her trip to Greece, such as Corinthos (1954) and Curved Form (Delphi) (1955).<ref name = stephens/>

Ambivalent burden of international reputationEdit

It was also during this decade that Hepworth became preoccupied with the idea of establishing a market base for her work in the United States. Initially she hoped to follow Henry Moore's successful sale of artwork via Curt Valentin of Bucholz Gallery in New York. Negotiations with Valentin did result in a number of American sales, but despite the sales, and despite interventions by Hepworth's friends, Valentin rebuffed repeated requests to hold any substantial stock of her work. It was not until 1955, after the Martha Jackson Gallery had offered Hepworth the opportunity to exhibit in their space alongside works by William Scott and Francis Bacon, that Hepworth formalised gallery representation in the new world.<ref name="Tate Gallery">Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Barbara Hepworth Single Form Battersea.JPG
Single Form (Memorial) at Battersea Park, London.

Hepworth's difficulties in establishing a stable gallery relationship in the United States have been attributed to many factors, including the artist's own diffidence regarding personal promotion of her work. When Martha Jackson failed to arrange the solo American exhibition of sculptures and drawings that Hepworth demanded, Hepworth moved, in 1957, to Galerie Chalette, run by Arthur and Madeleine Lejwa, known for their close relationship with Jean Arp, and dedication to close relationships with their artists.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Lejwas came through with the solo exhibition Hepworth craved.<ref name="Tate Gallery"/> Hepworth came to New York for the opening (her first visit to the city),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but made minimal contact with the press and left as soon as possible. "Have seen all the press", she wrote, "pulled faces at the camera and generally done my best!"<ref name="Tate Gallery"/>

Three years later, having secured the Dag Hammarskjöld Memorial Commission (Single Form, 1964), she left both Chalette and Gimpel Fils, her long-time home agent, for the larger Marlborough Fine Art and Marlborough-Gerson. "Pulled between personal loyalties and professional aspirations", Hepworth chose to forfeit the personal relationships.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Late careerEdit

Hepworth greatly increased her studio space in 1960 when she purchased the Palais de Danse, a former cinema and dance hall, that was situated across the street from Trewyn. She used this new space to work on large-scale commissions.<ref name=sophie/>

She also experimented with lithography in her late career, and produced two lithographic suites with the Curwen Gallery and its director Stanley Jones, one in 1969 and one in 1971.<ref name=behrman/> The latter was entitled "The Aegean Suite" (1971) and was inspired by Hepworth's trip to Greece in 1954 with Margaret Gardiner.<ref name="hepworthwakefield">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The artist also produced a set of lithographs entitled "Opposing Forms" (1970) with Marlborough Fine Art in London.<ref name="hepworthwakefield"/>

Barbara Hepworth died in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios on 20 May 1975 at the age of 72.<ref name="barbarahepworth.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Famous sculpturesEdit

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Two Forms (Divided Circle), 1969, St Ives.

In 1951 Hepworth was commissioned by the Arts Council to create a piece for the Festival of Britain.<ref name=bio9/> The resulting work featured two Irish limestone figures entitled, "Contrapuntal Forms" (1950), which was displayed on London's South Bank;<ref name=bio9/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> it was later donated to the New Town of Harlow and displayed in Glebelands, where it remains. To complete the large-scale piece Hepworth hired her first assistants, Terry Frost, Denis Mitchell, and John Wells.<ref name=bio9/>

From 1949 onwards she worked with assistants, 16 in all.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> One of her most prestigious works is Single Form,<ref name=bio2/> which was made in memory of her friend and collector of her works, the former Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, and which stands in the plaza of the United Nations building in New York City.<ref name=guardian/> It was commissioned by Jacob Blaustein, a former United States delegate to the U.N., in 1961 following Hammarskjöld's death in a plane crash.<ref name=un/>

On 20 December 2011, her 1969 sculpture Two Forms (Divided Circle) was stolen from its plinth in Dulwich Park, South London. Suspicions are that the theft was by scrap metal thieves. The piece, which had been in the park since 1970, was insured for £500,000, a spokesman for Southwark Council said.<ref name="bbc1"/>

One of the editions of six of her 1964 bronze sculpture, Rock Form (Porthcurno), was removed from the Mander Centre in Wolverhampton in the spring of 2014 by its owners, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Dalancey Estates. Its sudden disappearance led to questions in Parliament in September 2014. Paul Uppal, Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West said: "When the Rock Form was donated by the Mander family, it was done so in the belief it would be enjoyed and cherished by the people of Wolverhampton for generations... It belongs to, and should be enjoyed by, the City of Wolverhampton." The sculpture has since been loaned to the city by RBS and can be seen in Wolverhampton City Art Gallery.

RecognitionEdit

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Figure for Landscape, 1960, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.

Hepworth was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1959 São Paulo Art Biennial.<ref name=gale/> She was awarded the Freedom of St Ives in 1968 as an acknowledgment of her significant contributions to the town;<ref name=gale/> she was a member of the St Ives Trust (which sought to protect the town's character and architectural heritage), a founder member of the 'Art in Schools' programme run by Cornwall County Council, and had gifted several sculptures to the town.<ref name=CS>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp The same year, she was inducted into Gorsedh Kernow with the bardic name {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (meaning "Sculptor")<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> – this was described as an "extraordinary honour" given that she was not a Cornish native.<ref name=CS />Template:Rp She was awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Birmingham (1960), Leeds (1961), Exeter (1966), Oxford (1968), London (1970) and Manchester (1971).<ref name=alan/>

She was appointed CBE in 1958 and DBE in 1965.<ref name=alan/><ref name=gazette/> In 1973 she was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.<ref name=aaal/> Following her death, her studio and home in St Ives became the Barbara Hepworth Museum, which came under control of the Tate in 1980.<ref name=gale/>

In 2011 The Hepworth Wakefield opened in Hepworth's hometown of Wakefield, England. The Museum was designed by the architect David Chipperfield.<ref name="hepworthwakefield_about">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In January 2015 Tate Britain staged a major retrospective with over 70 of Hepworth's works. The first large London show since 1968, it included her well-known major abstract carvings and bronzes, as well as previously unseen photographs and a 1930s self-photogram.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On 25 August 2020, Google honoured Hepworth with a Google Doodle.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A Historic England blue plaque was unveiled in honour of Hepworth and first husband John Skeaping at 24 St Ann's Terrace, St John's Wood, London on 30 October 2020. The couple lived there in 1927.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Hepworth's work was included in the 2021 exhibition Women in Abstraction at the Centre Pompidou.<ref name="Women in abstraction">Template:Cite book</ref>

The first major survey of Hepworth's work, Barbara Hepworth: In Equilibrium was held at Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne from 5 November 2022 to 13 March 2023.<ref name="Heide Museum of Modern Art">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Her work had a wide influence on Australian sculpture.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

GalleryEdit

List of selected worksEdit

Year(s) Title Material Notes
1927 Doves Parian marble citation CitationClass=web

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1932–33 Seated Figure lignum vitae
1933 Two Forms alabaster and limestone
1934 Mother and Child Cumberland alabaster <ref name="Cohen-2020" />
1935 Three Forms Seravezza marble
1936 Ball Plane and Hole lignum vitae, mahogany and oak
1937 Pierced Hemisphere 1 white marble <ref name="Cohen-2020" />
1940 Sculpture with Colour (Deep Blue and Red) mixed
1943 Oval Sculpture cast material
1943–44 Wave wood, paint and string
1944 Landscape Sculpture wood (cast in bronze, 1961)
1946 Pelagos wood, paint and string
Tides wood and paint
1947 Blue and green (arthroplasty) 31 December 1947 oil and pencil on pressed paperboard
1948 Surgeon Waiting oil and pencil on pressed paperboard
1949 Operation: Case for Discussion oil and pencil on pressed paperboard
1951 Group I (Concourse) 4 February 1951 Serravezza marble
1953 Hieroglyph Ancaster stone
1953 Monolith-Empyrean Ancaster stone
1954–55 Two Figures teak and paint
1955 Oval Sculpture (Delos) scented guarea wood and paint
1955–56 Coré bronze
1956 Curved Form (Trevalgan) bronze (see external link to collection of Margaret Gardiner)
1956 Orpheus (Maquette), Version II brass and cotton string
Stringed Figure (Curlew), Version II brass and cotton string
1958 Cantate Domino bronze
Sea Form (Porthmeor) bronze
1959 Curved form with inner form – anima bronze
1960 Figure for Landscape bronze
Archaeon bronze
Meridian bronze
1960–62 Curved Reclining Form (Rosewall) Nabresina limestone
1961 Curved Form (Bryher) bronze
1962–63 Bronze Form (Patmos) bronze
1963 Winged Figure bronze
1963–65 Sphere with Inner Form bronze
1964 Rock Form (Porthcurno) bronze
Sea Form (Atlantic) bronze
Oval Form (Trezion) bronze <ref name="Cohen-2020" />
Single Form bronze
1966 Figure in a Landscape bronze on wooden base
Four-Square (Walk Through) bronze
1967 Two Forms (Orkney) slate
1968 Two Figures bronze and gold
1969 Two Forms (Divided Circle) bronze
1970 The Family of Man bronze
1971 The Aegean Suite series of prints
Summer Dance painted bronze
1972 Minoan Head marble on wooden base
Assembly of Sea Forms white marble
mounted on stainless steel base
1973 Conversation with Magic Stones bronze and silver

Marble portrait heads dating from London, ca. 1927, of Barbara Hepworth by John Skeaping, and of Skeaping by Hepworth, are documented by photograph in the Skeaping Retrospective catalogue,<ref name=skeaping/> but are both believed to be lost.

Galleries and locations exhibiting her workEdit

Two museums are named after Hepworth and have significant collections of her work: the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St Ives, Cornwall, and The Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire.<ref name=wakefield/><ref name=bbc2/> Her work also may be seen at: Template:Div col

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ReferencesEdit

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Further readingEdit

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BiographiesEdit

MonographsEdit

Exhibition cataloguesEdit

External linksEdit

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