Dame Barbara Hepworth - Champion of Modernism
Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth, born in Yorkshire in 1903, was an English artist and sculptor. Inspired by the landscapes she encountered throughout her life, her work exemplifies Modernism, and in particular modern sculpture.
On leaving school, Hepworth won a scholarship to The Leeds School of Art, and despite the difficulties of gaining position in a male-dominated environment she won a scholarship to The Royal College of Art in London.
She met Henry Moore there, and they established a friendly rivalry that lasted professionally for many years. In 1924 she was awarded her diploma, and won the West Riding Travel Scholarship which enabled her to travel to Florence. She learned from Giovanni Ardini how to carve marble directly from the stone, and married sculptor John Skeaping. They returned to London and had a son in 1929.
Barbara Hepworth
Her early work in abstraction was influenced by European art movements. In 1931, she was the first to sculpt the pierced figures that are characteristic of both her own work and, later, that of Henry Moore. They would lead in the path to modernism in sculpture.
Barbara Hepworth’s Studio in St Ives
One of Dame Barbara Hepworth’s Bronze Sculptures
In 1933, Barbara travelled to France with painter Ben Nicholson. 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. Ben and Barbara married in 1938. In August 1939, with war imminent, the Nicholsons and their young triplets left London for St Ives, Cornwall. This small Cornish fishing harbour, long a refuge for artists, was to become Hepworth’s home until her death in 1975. Low income, inadequate accommodation, the demands of a young family, and a lack of materials made sculpture almost impossible. What time she had was devoted to drawing and planning, and she made many studies that show an affinity with the work of Naum Gabo, who had also taken refuge in St Ives.
Inside Barbara Hepworth’s Studio in St Ives, Cornwall.
In 1943 after settling in to a larger home, Hepworth began making sculpture again. Her style evolved, enriched by her experiences and influenced by the Cornish landscape. While her daughter was in hospital, Barbara became friends with a surgeon. She was invited to watch surgeries and made almost 80 drawings of operating rooms. She saw a strong connection between surgeons and artists, particularly their ways of working.
Though her marriage to Ben ended in 1951 he remained in St Ives until 1958, and the mutually beneficial influence on each other’s work persisted. Barbara started working with bronze and clay. In 1953, Barbara’s oldest son died in a plane crash. She created a sculpture called Madonna and Child in his memory. As an antidote to grief, Hepworth travelled to Greece with her friend Margaret Gardiner, a trip which also influenced her work.
She had important retrospective exhibitions at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1954 and 1962, at the São Paulo biennial, Brazil, in 1959 (where she was awarded the grand prix), and at the Tate in 1968. She exhibited regularly in London, New York, and Zurich, and was shown throughout Europe and the United States, in Japan, and in Australia.
Winning widespread public recognition in later years, she was regarded as the world’s greatest female sculptor. She asked simply to be treated as a sculptor, irrespective of sex.
She was appointed CBE in 1958 and DBE in 1965. Honorary degrees were awarded to her by the universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Exeter, Oxford, London, and Manchester, and by the Royal College of Art, where she was also a senior fellow. She was made a bard of Cornwall in 1968, and in 1973 an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She served as a trustee of the Tate Gallery from 1965 until 1972.
After suffering chronic illness Hepworth died in a fire in her studio on 20 May 1975. Trewyn Studio was opened to the public in 1976 and presented to the nation by her family in 1980. It is now an outstation of the Tate. Hepworth’s work is represented in more than a hundred public collections throughout the world, including the Leeds and Wakefield city art galleries; in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; and in the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, at Otterlo, in the Netherlands.
“All my early memories are forms and shapes and textures. Moving through the West Riding landscape with my father in his car, the hills were sculptures.”
The Garden of Barbara Hepworth’s Studio in St Ives
Inspired by Barbara Hepworth? Join us for our 10 week All-Abilities course and explore wide range of mediums and artistic styles. These art classes are suitable for all abilities, including complete beginners. We explore everything from architecture to portraits, using pencils, charcoal, pastels, watercolour, gouache and acrylics.