Barbara Hepworth is universally recognised as one of the most influential and significant British artists to have ever existed. After being born in Wakefield on 10 January 1903 she began her artistic careers at Leeds School of Art (1920-21) before studying at the Royal College of Art (1921-24). It was during these years that Hepworth met the renowned artists Edna Ginesi, Henry Moore, Raymond Coxon and John Skeaping. It wasn’t until after her marriage with Skeaping that she began to work with stone carving which would eventually become her signature medium; creating sculptures both nationally and internationally notorious. Having started using this medium in Rome, the couple eventually moved back to London in 1926 where Hepworth’s work became increasingly recognised as something innovative and exciting.
Her life, however, dramatically changed eight years later with her divorce and then birth of triplets in 1934. It was in this year also that the artist married for the second time, this time to Nicholson. With her new husband, Hepworth began her development towards abstraction; creating joint exhibitions which included experimental collage work, photograms and prints. Despite this development Hepworth had always been restricted to the scale of her art due to a lack of space. However this changed once she secured her own studio in 1942 by moving to Chy-an-Kerris, Carbis Bay in 1942. As a result of this newfound liberation she was now able to create her first solo exhibition in 1943, which was held in Temple Newsam, Leeds. Throughout the area of St Ives Hepworth quickly became one of the most prominent artists, and eventually moved studios following her divorce from Nicholson in 1951. During St Ives’ period of post-war international prominence, Hepworth was particularly involved on behalf of the area’s modernist artistic community. Whilst working in the south of England, its striking scenic landscape provided her with the inspiration for the majority of her work, although one can also see suggestions of connections with pre-war morals through a lot of her art.
Following her death in 1975 her studio became the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Gardens, which I have personally visited and would strongly recommend to anyone interested in artistic sculpture. This – along with her collections which hang in St Ives’ Tate – proves that she truly was one of the most interesting and pioneering sculptors and artists to come from the Yorkshire area. Just 12 miles from Leeds in Wakefield exists the Hepworth Wakefield; a modern gallery dedicated to the life of such a great artist which includes some of her rarely seen works as well as those from contemporary local artists.
Image Source:
http://www.hepworthwakefield.o…
By Meg Vincent