Dame Barbara Hepworth | |
|---|---|
_by_Erling_Mandelmann.jpg) Hepworth in 1966 | |
| Born | Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (1903-01-10)10 January 1903 Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 20 May 1975(1975-05-20) (aged 72) St Ives, Cornwall, England |
| Education | |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Movement | Modernism,abstract art |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4, includingSimon Nicholson |
| Website | www |
Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifiesModernism and in particular modern sculpture.[1] Along with artists such asBen Nicholson andNaum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in thecolony of artists who resided inSt 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 sculptorJohn Skeaping in 1925. In 1931 she fell in love with the painterBen 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 movementUnit 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 – andlithographs. She died in a fire at her studio in 1975.
Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 inWakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest child of Gertrude and Herbert Hepworth.[2] Her father was a civil engineer for the West Riding County Council, who in 1921 advanced to the role ofcounty surveyor.[2] Hepworth attendedWakefield Girls' High School, where she was awarded music prizes at the age of 12[3][4] and won a scholarship to study at theLeeds School of Art from 1920. It was there that she met her fellow Yorkshireman,Henry Moore.[2] 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,[5] Hepworth successfully won a county scholarship to attend theRoyal 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.[6]
Following her studies at the RCA, Hepworth travelled toFlorence, Italy, in 1924 on aWest Riding Travel Scholarship.[1] Hepworth was also the runner-up for thePrix-de-Rome, which the sculptorJohn Skeaping won.[1] After travelling with him to Siena and Rome, Hepworth married Skeaping in May 1925 in Florence.[2] In Italy, Hepworth learned how to carve marble from sculptor Giovanni Ardini.[2] Hepworth and Skeaping returned to London in 1926, where they exhibited their works together from their flat.[2] Their son Paul was born in London in 1929.[1] In 1931, Hepworth met and fell in love with abstract painterBen Nicholson; however, both were still married at the time.[8] Hepworth filed for divorce from Skeaping that year;[9] they were divorced in March 1933.[2]
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.[10] They would lead in the path to modernism in sculpture. In 1933, Hepworth travelled with Nicholson to France, where they visited the studios ofJean Arp,Pablo Picasso, andConstantin Brâncuși.[2] Hepworth later became involved with the Paris-based art movement,Abstraction-Création.[11] In 1933, Hepworth co-founded theUnit One art movement with Nicholson andPaul Nash, the criticHerbert Read, and the architectWells Coates.[12] The movement sought to unite Surrealism and abstraction in British art.[12]
Hepworth also helped raise awareness of continental artists amongst the British public. In 1937, she designed the layout forCircle: 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, andLeslie Martin.[13]
Hepworth, with Nicholson, gave birth to triplets in 1934: Rachel, Sarah, andSimon. 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."[14] Hepworth married Nicholson on 17 November 1938 atHampstead Register Office in north London, following his divorce from his wifeWinifred.[15] Rachel and Simon also became artists.[16]
Hepworth, Nicholson and their children went to live in Cornwall at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.[17][18] She lived in Trewyn Studios inSt Ives from 1949 until her death in 1975. Trewyn Studios had once been an outbuilding of Trewyn House, later purchased by her pupil and assistantJohn Milne in 1956.[19][17] 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."[17] St Ives had become a refuge for many artists during the war. On 8 February 1949, Hepworth and Nicholson co-founded thePenwith Society of Arts at the Castle Inn; 19 artists were founding members, includingPeter Lanyon andBernard Leach.[20]
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.[21] 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.[21][22] 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."[21]
In 1950, works by Hepworth were exhibited in the British Pavilion at the XXVVenice Biennale[2] alongside works byMatthew Smith andJohn Constable.[23] The 1950 Biennale was the last time that contemporary British artists were exhibited alongside artists from the past.[23] Two early public commissions,Contrapunctal Forms andTurning Forms, were exhibited at theFestival of Britain in 1951.[24][25]
During this period, Hepworth and Nicholson divorced (1951).[16] Hepworth moved away from working only in stone or wood and began to work with bronze and clay.[17] Hepworth often used her garden in St Ives, which she designed with her friend the composerPriaulx Rainier, to view her large-scale bronzes.[17]
Her eldest son Paul was killed on 13 February 1953 in a plane crash while serving with theRoyal Air Force in Thailand.[27] A memorial to him,Madonna and Child, is in theparish church of St Ives.[28]
Exhausted, in part from her son's death, Hepworth travelled to Greece with her friendMargaret Gardiner in August 1954.[27] They visitedAthens,Delphi and many of theAegean Islands.[27]
When Hepworth returned to St Ives from Greece in August 1954 she found that Gardiner had sent her a large shipment of Nigerianguarea hardwood.[27] Although she received only a single tree trunk, Hepworth noted that the shipment from Nigeria to the Tilbury docks came in at 17 tons.[27] Between 1954 and 1956 Hepworth sculpted six pieces out of guarea wood, many of which were inspired by her trip to Greece, such asCorinthos (1954) andCurved Form (Delphi) (1955).[27]
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 viaCurt 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 theMartha Jackson Gallery had offered Hepworth the opportunity to exhibit in their space alongside works byWilliam Scott andFrancis Bacon, that Hepworth formalised gallery representation in the new world.[29]
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, toGalerie Chalette, run by Arthur and Madeleine Lejwa, known for their close relationship withJean Arp, and dedication to close relationships with their artists.[30]
The Lejwas came through with the solo exhibition Hepworth craved.[29] Hepworth came to New York for the opening (her first visit to the city),[31] 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!"[29]
Three years later, having secured theDag Hammarskjöld Memorial Commission (Single Form, 1964), she left both Chalette andGimpel 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.[32]
Hepworth greatly increased her studio space in 1960 when she purchased thePalais 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.[33]
She also experimented withlithography 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.[34] The latter was entitled "The Aegean Suite" (1971) and was inspired by Hepworth's trip to Greece in 1954 withMargaret Gardiner.[35] The artist also produced a set of lithographs entitled "Opposing Forms" (1970) withMarlborough Fine Art in London.[35]
Barbara Hepworth died in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios on 20 May 1975 at the age of 72.[36]
In 1951 Hepworth was commissioned by the Arts Council to create a piece for theFestival of Britain.[37] The resulting work featured two Irish limestone figures entitled, "Contrapuntal Forms" (1950), which was displayed on London's South Bank;[37][38] 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, andJohn Wells.[37]
From 1949 onwards she worked with assistants, 16 in all.[39] One of her most prestigious works isSingle Form,[40] which was made in memory of her friend and collector of her works, the former Secretary GeneralDag Hammarskjöld, and which stands in the plaza of the United Nations building in New York City.[14] It was commissioned byJacob Blaustein, a former United States delegate to the U.N., in 1961 following Hammarskjöld's death in a plane crash.[41]
On 20 December 2011, her 1969 sculptureTwo Forms (Divided Circle) was stolen from its plinth inDulwich Park,South London. Suspicions are that the theft was byscrap metal thieves. The piece, which had been in the park since 1970, was insured for £500,000, a spokesman forSouthwark Council said.[42]
One of the editions of six of her 1964 bronze sculpture,Rock Form (Porthcurno), was removed from theMander Centre inWolverhampton in the spring of 2014 by its owners, theRoyal Bank of Scotland and Dalancey Estates. Its sudden disappearance led to questions in Parliament in September 2014.Paul Uppal, Member of Parliament forWolverhampton South West said: "When theRock Form was donated by theMander 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.
Hepworth was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1959São Paulo Art Biennial.[1] She was awarded the Freedom of St Ives in 1968 as an acknowledgment of her significant contributions to the town;[1] 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 byCornwall County Council, and had gifted several sculptures to the town.[43]: 95 The same year, she was inducted intoGorsedh Kernow with thebardic nameGravyor (meaning "Sculptor")[44] – this was described as an "extraordinary honour" given that she was not a Cornish native.[43]: 18 She was awarded honorary degrees from the universities ofBirmingham (1960),Leeds (1961),Exeter (1966),Oxford (1968),London (1970) andManchester (1971).[15]
She was appointedCBE in 1958 andDBE in 1965.[15][45] In 1973 she was elected an honorary member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters.[46] Following her death, her studio and home in St Ives became theBarbara Hepworth Museum, which came under control of theTate in 1980.[1]
In 2011The Hepworth Wakefield opened in Hepworth's hometown ofWakefield, England. The Museum was designed by the architectDavid Chipperfield.[47]
In January 2015Tate 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.[48]
On 25 August 2020, Google honoured Hepworth with aGoogle Doodle.[49] AHistoric Englandblue plaque was unveiled in honour of Hepworth and first husbandJohn Skeaping at 24 St Ann's Terrace,St John's Wood, London on 30 October 2020. The couple lived there in 1927.[50][51]
Hepworth's work was included in the 2021 exhibitionWomen in Abstraction at theCentre Pompidou.[52]
The first major survey of Hepworth's work,Barbara Hepworth: In Equilibrium was held atHeide Museum of Modern Art inMelbourne from 5 November 2022 to 13 March 2023.[53] Her work had a wide influence on Australian sculpture.[54]
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| Year(s) | Title | Material | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1927 | Doves | Parian marble | [55] |
| 1932–33 | Seated Figure | lignum vitae | |
| 1933 | Two Forms | alabaster andlimestone | |
| 1934 | Mother and Child | Cumberlandalabaster | [55] |
| 1935 | Three Forms | Seravezzamarble | |
| 1936 | Ball Plane and Hole | lignum vitae,mahogany and oak | |
| 1937 | Pierced Hemisphere 1 | white marble | [55] |
| 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 inbronze, 1961) | |
| 1946 | Pelagos | wood, paint and string | |
| Tides | wood and paint | ||
| 1947 | Blue and green (arthroplasty) 31 December 1947 | oil and pencil on pressedpaperboard | |
| 1948 | Surgeon Waiting | oil and pencil on pressedpaperboard | |
| 1949 | Operation: Case for Discussion | oil and pencil on pressedpaperboard | |
| 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) | scentedguarea 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 | [55] | |
| 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 byJohn Skeaping, and of Skeaping by Hepworth, are documented by photograph in the Skeaping Retrospective catalogue,[56] but are both believed to be lost.
Two museums are named after Hepworth and have significant collections of her work: theBarbara Hepworth Museum inSt Ives, Cornwall, andThe Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire.[57][58] Her work also may be seen at:
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