Barbara Hepworth

For more information on Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth, visit Britannica.com.

(b Wakefield, 10 Jan 1903; d St Ives, 20 May 1975). English sculptor and draughtswoman. She trained as a sculptor at Leeds School of Art in 1919 and at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1920 to 1923, where she was associated with other artists from Leeds, including Henry Moore. Though she lost the 1924 Rome Scholarship to the English sculptor John Skeaping (1901-80), she was able to accompany him to Italy on a West Riding Scholarship, and they were married in 1925. They lived in the British School in Rome, where Skeaping consolidated his interest in carving in stone. His superior knowledge of direct carving must have been influential for Hepworth, for this practice had not been on the syllabus at art school.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

British-born (1903-1975) sculptor Barbara Hepworth has been called one of the outstanding women artists of the twentieth century. Throughout her working life and until her death, she never received the recognition of male contemporaries such as another - and more famous - British sculptor, Henry Moore. Comparing the two, art critic Leslie Judd Portner, in "Washington Post and Times Herald", noted that "Where Moore concerns himself with natural forms, Hepworth's work is almost entirely abstract."

Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, on Jan. 10, 1903, Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was the eldest of four children. As a young girl, she often traveled about the Yorkshire countryside with her father for his work as county surveyor. She spoke of Yorkshire as a "curiously rhythmic patterning of cobbled streets … most ungracious houses dominated by … slagheaps, noise, dirt, and smell." These early impressions of the contradiction between industrial town and quiet countryside later became an integral part of her work.

The Years Abroad

By the age of 16, Hepworth was modeling life portraits in clay, which helped to win her a scholarship to the Leeds School of Art, where she studied for a year. At Leeds, she met another young artist who would become a lifelong friend, the renowned sculptor, Henry Moore. Although Hepworth would never receive the recognition of her colleague, he was an important influence on her work.

Another scholarship gave Hepworth three years in London as a student at the Royal College of Art. In 1924, at the age of 21, her work earned her a year's study in Italy. From the art-filled city of Florence, Hepworth toured the countryside, and the sights and sounds of the Tuscany landscape became an integral part of her work, just as Yorkshire had years before.

Hepworth stayed in Italy for 18 months after her scholarship ended. She studied in Rome with master carver Ardini, who taught her that "marble changes color under different people's hands." She later said she understood him to mean that the artist must learn to understand, not dominate the material. Besides her studies, Hepworth found time for marriage to John Rattenbury Skeaping, also a sculptor from Britain. Their only child, Paul, was born in 1929. A year earlier, the work of both Hepworth and Skeaping was exhibited at the Beaux Arts Gallery in London. Hepworth's doves in Parian marble from this exhibition are now in the Art Gallery of Manchester. She and Skeaping were divorced in 1933. That same year she married another British artist, Ben Nicholson. Under his influence, her sculpture became more severe and geometrical.

Hepworth and Nicholson traveled through France for most of the year, visiting the studios of such famous artists as Pablo Picasso and avant-garde sculptors Constantin Brancusi and Jean Arp. They joined the Abstraction-Création group in Paris. Hepworth's work from this period includes a kneeling figure in rosewood, now in the Wakefield Art Gallery.

Work in a New Direction

The birth of triplets, Simon, Rachel, and Sarah, in 1934 marked a profound change both in Hepworth's life and her life's work. Always short of money in recognition of her art, she said that after the birth of the triplets, she knew fear for the first time. She and Nicholson had about $100 in the bank at the time and were living in a basement flat. Her work changed, too. Relationships in space began to absorb her creativity, and her sculpture became more formal. For some time she had been drifting away from recognizable human forms, but now her pieces became far more abstract. An example is Three Forms (1935), consisting of a sphere and two nearly oval shapes. Critics have suggested this may symbolize the birth of her triplets.

By 1935, Hepworth and Nicholson had become involved with an international artistic group that included such names as Dutch abstract artist Mondrian and German-born Walter Gropius, an influential leader in the development of modern architecture. But World War II was now approaching and Hepworth, worried about the safety of her children, moved with them to Cornwall in southwestern England. The influence of what she called the "pagan landscape" and the sea is evident in her work from this period, such as Tides (1946), with a hollowed interior that contrasts in color with the polished grain on each side. By the mid-1940s, Hepworth's sculpture had become increasingly open and hollowed out so that the interior space became as important as what surrounded it.

Recognition and Honors

Hepworth and Nicholson were divorced in 1951. For the next two decades, her work received broader recognition and honors. It was part of an exhibition in Venice, the Twenty-fifth Biennale, which she attended, sitting every day in the Piazza San Marco and watching the way people reacted to her use of space. She produced Contrapuntal Forms in blue limestone (1950) for the Festival of Britain, which stresses the opposition of vertical forms to the horizontal. For a change of pace in 1954 she designed sets for Michael Tippett's opera, Midsummer Marriage. By this time, Hepworth had started to work with metals. One of her best-known works, which now guards the United Nations Plaza in New York City, is Single Form (1963), a towering shield-like mass of bronze. She received a number of commissions in the 1960s for truly huge sculptures, most of them about 20 feet high. An example is Four-Square Walk Through (1966), a gigantic geometrical piece.

Barbara Hepworth's life and work were honored by her country in 1965 when she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She died on May 20, 1975, in a tragic fire in her home at St. Ives, Cornwall. The house is now a museum and features many of her works.

An artist who never received the level of attention given to her male contemporaries, Hepworth strongly felt that women artists could contribute greatly to an understanding of the visual arts. "Perhaps especially," she said, "in sculpture, for there is a whole range of formal perception belonging to feminine experience."

Further Reading

For Barbara Hepworth's work, see her own publications: Carvings and Drawings (1952), Drawings from a Sculptor's Landscape (1966), and A Pictorial Autobiography (1970); A good introduction to her work is A. M. Hammacher, Barbara Hepworth (1968); J. P. Hodin, Barbara Hepworth (1961), contains a biography and an analysis of the development and style of the artist; See also: Who's Who in Art (1956); Encyclopedia Americana (Vols. 10,14, 1996

Barbara Hepworth
Hepworth's Family of Man in bronze, 1970, at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Birth name	Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth
Born	10 January 1903 Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Died	20 May 1975, (aged 72) St Ives, Cornwall
Nationality	English
Field	Sculpture
Training	Leeds School of Art, Royal College of Art
Movement	Modernism, Abstract art
Influenced by	Henry Moore
Awards	DBE

Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975, christened Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth) was a major British sculptor and artist of the twentieth century. She was a contemporary and friend of Henry Moore.

Contents 1 Life and work 2 Portrait Sculpture 3 Gallery 4 List of selected works 5 References 6 External links

Life and work

Hepworth was born in Wakefield^[1], West Yorkshire, attended Wakefield Girls High School, and won a scholarship and studied at the Leeds School of Art from 1920 (where she met Moore). She then won a County scholarship to the Royal College of Art and studied there from 1921 until she was awarded the diploma of the Royal College of Art in 1924^[2]. She later studied for a period in Italy.

Barbara Hepworth is one of the most significant sculptors and artists of the 20th century. Her work exemplifies Modernism and along with her contemporaries in England such as Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo and others she helped to develop modern art (sculpture in particular) immeasurably.

One of her most prestigious works is Single Form^[3], in memory of her friend and collector of her works Dag Hammarskjöld, at the United Nations building in New York City. It was commissioned in 1961 by the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation following Hammarskjöld's death in a plane crash.

Hepworth's first marriage was to the sculptor John Skeaping, with whom she had a son, Paul, in 1929^[4]. Her second marriage was to the painter Ben Nicholson. They married on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office. The couple had triplets in 1934, Simon, Rachel and Sarah; Simon also became an artist. The couple divorced in 1951. Her eldest son, Paul, was killed on 13 February 1953 in a plane crash while serving with the Royal Air Force in Thailand; Hepworth created a memorial to him, entitled Madonna and Child^[5], in the church in St Ives^[6].

She was made a Dame in 1965, ten years before her death during a fire in her St Ives studio in Cornwall, aged seventy-two. The studio and her home now form the Barbara Hepworth Museum.

As well as at the Barbara Hepworth Museum, more of Hepworth's work will be on display at The Hepworth Wakefield ^[7] a museum currently under construction in Wakefield^[8]. An opening in 2010 is anticipated.

Her work may also be seen at St. Catherine's College, Oxford^[9], the School of Music at Cardiff University^[10], the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, West Yorkshire; Clare College^[11], Churchill College^[12] and Murray Edwards College (formerly New Hall)^[13], Cambridge; Snape Maltings, Snape, Suffolk; and on view in or attached to the John Lewis department store^[14], part of the John Lewis Partnership, in Oxford Street (see picture); and Kenwood House, both in London. Her 1966 work "Construction (Crucifixion): Homage to Mondrian"^[15] can be seen in the grounds of Winchester Cathedral next to the The Pilgrims' School: Hieroglyph can be seen at Leeds Art Gallery^[16]. The Tate Gallery owns many of her works. In The Netherlands, the Kroller-Mueller museum also owns several of her sculptures. "Curved Form (Trevalgan)" (1956) which stood in Margaret Gardiner's rear garden in Hampstead is now at the Pier Art Gallery in Stromness together with 67 other works donated by Gardiner. Trevalgan was Hepworth's first entire bronze form.

Portrait Sculpture

Marble heads dating from London, c. 1927 of Barbara Hepworth by John Skeaping, and of Skeaping by Hepworth are documented by photograph in the Skeaping Retrospective catalogue^[17] but are both believed lost.

Gallery

Monolith-Empyrean, 1953	Sphere with Inner Form (1963) at Trewyn Garden, St Ives, Cornwall.	Four Square Walk through, 1966	Construction (Crucifixion): Homage to Mondrian, outside Winchester Cathedral
Explanation of Construction (Crucifixion): Homage to Mondrian	"Achaean" ca. 1963, at St. Catherine's College, Oxford	Dual Form at St Ives Guildhall

List of selected works

Winged Figure, 1963, on the side of the John Lewis department store, Oxford Street, London

Sphere with Inner Form (1963) at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.

1928	Doves	Parian marble
1932-33	Seated Figure	lignum vitae
1933	Two Forms	alabaster and limestone
1934	Mother and Child	Cumberland alabaster
1935	Three Forms	Seravezza marble
1936	Ball Plane and Hole	lignum vitae, mahogany and oak
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
1949	Operation: Case for Discussion	oil and pencil on pressed paperboard
1951	Group I (Concourse) February 4 1951	Serravezza marble
1953	Hieroglyph	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)
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
1960	Figure for a Landscape	bronze
	Archaeon	bronze
1962-63	Bronze Form (Patmos)	bronze
1964	Rock Form (Porthcurno)	bronze
	Sea Form (Atlantic)	bronze
	Oval Form (Trezion)	bronze
1966	Figure in a Landscape	bronze on wooden base
	Four-Square Walk Through	bronze
1968	Two Figures	bronze and gold
1970	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

References

1. ^ http://www.robertsandelson.com/bk/barbarahepworth_bio.html
2. ^ http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=29038
3. ^ http://www.barbarahepworth.org.uk/commissions/list/single-form.html
4. ^ http://www.hh-h.com/biographies/BarbaraHepworth-biog.htm
5. ^ http://www.barbarahepworth.org.uk/sculptures/1954/madonna-and-child/
6. ^ http://www.leninimports.com/barbara_hepworth.html
7. ^ http://www.hepworthwakefield.com/
8. ^ http://www.barbarahepworth.org.uk/
9. ^ http://www.barbarahepworth.org.uk/sculptures/1959/figure-archaean/
10. ^ http://www.barbarahepworth.org.uk/sculptures/1968/three-obliques-walkin/
11. ^ http://www.barbarahepworth.org.uk/sculptures/1969/two-forms-divided-circle/
12. ^ http://www.barbarahepworth.org.uk/sculptures/1966/foursquare-walk-through/
13. ^ http://www.newhall.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/subjects/arthistory/
14. ^ http://www.barbarahepworth.org.uk/commissions/list/winged-figure.html
15. ^ http://www.barbarahepworth.org.uk/sculptures/1966/construction-crucifixion/
16. ^ http://www.leedsartgallery.co.uk/
17. ^ John Skeaping 1901-80: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Arthur Ackermann and Son, London, 1991 p.7

• Penelope Curtis, Barbara Hepworth. Tate Publishing, ISBN 1-85437-225-4.
• Barbara Hepworth, Hepworth, Barbara: A Pictorial Autobiography. Tate Publishing, ISBN 1-85437-149-5.
• Biography
• Leslie Sacks Fine Art Biography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Barbara Hepworth

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Barbara Hepworth

• Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden
• Barbara Hepworth in the Tate Collection
• Barbara Hepworth in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• Collection of Margaret Gardiner at the Pier Art Gallery, Stromness, Orkney including Trevalgan, 1956
• Yorkshire Sculpture Park
• The Hepworth
• artcornwall.org online journal for art and artists in Cornwall
• Archival material relating to Barbara Hepworth listed at the UK National Register of Archives

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