Barbara HEPWORTH
The involvement of foremost female sculptor Barbara Hepworth with West Cornwall is so well documented that it is pointless to list more than a few facts here. Her bibliography is also huge, both in terms of general reference and personal biographical documents. Her studio home and sculpture gardens in St Ives - 'Trewyn' - are part of the Tate St Ives set of museums and galleries, and as such also include a Visitor centre and bookshop. Opening times are posted on the relevant websites.
Her chief influences were said to be Picasso, Arp and Brancusi and most especially Mondrian. (Artists from Cornwall Exh Cat 1992)
Hepworth was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire and studied first at the Leeds School of Art. She was married first to the sculptor John Skeaping, and secondly in 1931 to the painter Ben NICHOLSON (dissolved 1951). She became a Dame of the British Empire in 1965. Her death in her St Ives home was due to an accidental fire.
media
Designer and sculptor
works and access
Access to works: Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden, St Ives (Collection)
Nelson-Atkins Art Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri (collection)
Kroller-Muller Museum, Netherlands, and major international sculpture collections world-wide
exhibitions
Festival of Britain 1951
Penlee Park, 1957 (Organisers Hepworth & Michael CANNEY): British Sculpture
University of Birmingham (Orion Gallery Touring) Artists of Cornwall Exhibition 1972
Looking West, NAG and RCA 1987 (Exhibited: Night Sky, Porthmeor 1964)
A Century of Art in Cornwall 1889-1989 Centenary Exhibition for CCC, Truro
RWE Artists from Cornwall Exh (1992) Bristol
2019: The World as Yet Unseen, Falmouth Art Gallery (6 Apr-15 June)
2024: Truro School Art Collection, Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro (30 Jan-18 May)
memberships
Penwith Society of Artists
misc further info
December 2010: BBC 4 'Art of Cornwall' (series) 90 minute documentary on the modernist movement in abstract art centreing on St Ives in the beginning with the move of Hepworth and Nicholson to Cornwall during WWII. Includes Gabo, Heron, Lanyon and Frost references, and Rothko's visit.
references
Personal Biography
Festing (1995) Barbara Hepworth: A life in Forms
Tate (1999) Barbara Hepworth: Works in the Tate Gallery Collection and Sculpture Garden at St Ives
General
Bird (2008) St Ives Artists: Place and Time;
Cork, R (1989) 'The Visual Arts' [in] B Ford (ed) The Edwardian Age and the Inter-War Years, Vol 8 Cambridge Guide to the Arts in Britain.
P Fuller (1988) in B Ford, ed The Cambridge Guide to the Arts in Britain, Vol 9, Chp 3: 'The Visual Arts' (illus)
Hardie (1995) 100 Years in Newlyn: Diary of a Gallery;
Hoyle, H (Dec 2010 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) Review of BBC4 documentary 'Art of Cornwall'
Hoyle, H (Jan 2013 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) Barbara Tribe - A Sculptor's Life
Hoyle, H (Oct 2013 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Margaret Mellis and St Ives Modernism'
Hoyle, H (Dec 2013 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) Barbara Tribe Revisited
Hoyle, H (Feb 2014 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Morag Ballard at Lemon Street Gallery'
Hoyle, H (April 2016 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Taking Space at the Crypt Gallery'
LeGrice (2008) The First Eleven: St Ives Artists (photo)
Public Catalogue Foundation (2007) Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly (frontispiece) pp132-3
RWE Artists from Cornwall Exh Cat (1992) Bristol
Tate (2003) Barbara Hepworth: Centenery
Tate (1985) St Ives 1939-64: 25 Years of Painting, Sculpture and Pottery (biog notes p124 with photo c1947)
Whybrow (2013) St Ives: The Story of Porthmeor Studios