Artist Quote: "All my early memories are of forms and shapes and textures. Moving through the English landscape with my father in his car, the hills were sculptures; the roads defined the forms." Achievements: Hepworth was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1959 São Paulo Bienal. Hepworth's home and studio have been preserved at the Barbara Hepworth Home and Sculpture Garden, which is run by the Tate museum. Hepworth was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1965. In August 2020, Google chose her as their homepage doodle (pictured above). The 2014 sale of Figure for Landscape (1960) at Christie's auction in London went for $7.08 million. | About the Artist: Hepworth trained in sculpture at Leeds School of Art. She was inspired by seeing images of Egyptian sculpture and encouraged by the headteacher to apply for a scholarship to Leeds School of Art. Following this, in 1921, she began her studies at the Royal College of Art in London. On completing her degree in 1924, Hepworth was awarded a West Riding travel scholarship, enabling her to travel to Italy. She learnt to carve from a master-carver in Rome. When she returned to London, she was dedicated to ‘direct carving’, the practice of carving directly into wood or stone, rather than modelling sculpture in clay for a master-craftsman to then make the finished work. Hepworth moved away from representation and shifted from figurative to abstract forms. She made her first pierced sculpture in 1932, introducing emptied space as an element in her compositions. Her sculptures create a contrast between the geometry of their clear edges and nature’s curving shapes and lines. Hepworth said about the works that included strings in the sculpture, "the strings were the tension I felt between myself and the sea, the wind or the hills." She said, "The main sources of my inspiration are the human figure and the landscape; also the one in relation to the other." She experimented with new materials throughout her long career, working in bronze, slate and printmaking. |
Sources:
https://barbarahepworth.org.uk/
https://hepworthwakefield.org/artist/barbara-hepworth/
https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/barbara-hepworth/
https://barbarahepworth.org.uk/
https://hepworthwakefield.org/artist/barbara-hepworth/
https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/barbara-hepworth/