No 341 Barbara Hepworth | Art Quote of the Day Art Quote of the Day Posted on May 20, 2016 by notes to the milkman “I felt the most intense pleasure in piercing the stone in order to make an abstract form and space; quite a different sensation from that of doing it for the purpose of realism.” Dame Barbara Hepworth, who died in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios on 20 May 1975 at the age of 72. Share this: Ben Nicholson | stuartshieldgardendesign stuartshieldgardendesign People and Places that inspire me Menu 5 Replies Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. She was “one of the few women artists to achieve international prominence.” Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St. Ives during the Second World War.

Early life Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest child of Gertrude and Herbert Hepworth. Her father was a civil engineer for the West Riding County Council, who in 1921 became County Surveyor. An upwardly mobile family, and a dominant father determined her to exploit fully her natural talents. She attended Wakefield Girls High School, and won a scholarship to and studied at the Leeds School of Art from 1920. It was there that she met her fellow student, Henry Moore. They became friends and established a friendly rivalry that lasted professionally for many years. Hepworth was the first to sculpt the pierced figures that are characteristic of works by both. They would lead in the path to modernism in sculpture. Ever self-conscious as a woman in a man’s world, 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. Early career Following her studies at the RCA, Hepworth travelled to Florence, Italy in 1924 on a West Riding Travel Scholarship.

Hepworth was also the runner-up for the Prix-de-Rome, which the sculptor John Skeaping won. After travelling together through Siena and Rome, Hepworth married Skeaping on 13 May 1925 in Florence. In Italy, Hepworth learned how to carve marble from the master sculptor, Giovanni Ardini. Hepworth and Skeaping returned to London in 1926, where they exhibited their works together from their flat. Their son Paul was born in London in 1929.Her early work was highly interested in abstraction and art movements on the continent. In 1933, Hepworth travelled to France with Ben Nicholson, where they visited the studios of Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, and Constantin Brâncuşi. Hepworth later became involved with the Paris-based art movement, Abstraction-Création. In 1933, Hepworth co-founded the Unit One art movement with the artists Paul Nash and Ben Nicholson, critic Herbert Read, and the architect Wells Coates.[7] The movement sought to unite Surrealism and abstraction in British art. Hepworth also helped raise awareness of continental artists amongst the British public.

In 1937 she designed the layout for Circle: An International Survey of Constructivist Art, a 300-page book that surveyed Constructivist artists and that was published in London and edited by Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo, and Leslie Martin. Hepworth married the painter Ben Nicholson on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office, following his divorce from his wife Winifred. The couple had triplets in 1934, Rachel, Sarah, and Simon. Rachel and Simon also became artists. The couple would divorce in 1951. St. Ives Hepworth, her husband Ben Nicholson and their children first visited Cornwall at the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Hepworth lived in Trewyn Studios in St. Ives from 1949 until her death in 1975. Hepworth said that “Finding Trewyn Studio was sort of magic. Here was a studio, a yard, and garden where I could work in open air and space.” St. Ives had become a refuge for many artists during the war.

On 8 February 1949, Hepworth and Nicholson co-founded the Penwith Society of Arts at the Castle Inn; nineteen artists were founding members, including Peter Lanyon and Bernard Leach. Hepworth was also a skilled draughtsman. After her daughter Sarah was hospitalized in 1944, she struck up a close friendship with the surgeon Norman Capener. At Capener’s invitation, she was invited to view surgical procedures and, between 1947-1949, she produced nearly eighty drawings of operating rooms in chalk, ink, and pencil. Hepworth was fascinated by the similarities between surgeons and artists, stating: “There is, it seems to me, a close affinity between the work and approach of both physicians and surgeons, and painters and sculptors.” In 1950, works by Hepworth were exhibited in the British Pavilion at the XXV Venice Biennale alongside works by Matthew Smith and John Constable. The 1950 Biennale was the last time that contemporary British artists were exhibited alongside artists from the past. During this period, Hepworth moved away from working only in stone or wood and began to work with bronze.

Hepworth often used her garden in St. Ives, which she designed with her friend the composer Priaulx Rainier, to view her large-scale bronzes. Death of son Paul Her eldest son, Paul, was killed on 13 February 1953 in a plane crash while serving with the Royal Air Force in Thailand. A memorial to him, Madonna and Child, is in the parish church of St. Ives. Exhausted in part from her son’s death, Hepworth travelled to Greece with her good friend Margaret Gardiner in August 1954.They visited Athens, Delphi, and many of the Aegean Islands. When Hepworth returned to St.Ives from Greece in August 1954, she found that Gardiner had sent her a large shipment of Nigerian Guarea hardwood. Although she received only a single tree trunk, Hepworth noted that the shipment from Nigeria to the Tilbury docks came in at 17 tons.

Between 1954-1956 Hepworth sculpted six pieces out of Guarea wood, many of which were inspired by her trip to Greece, such as “Corinthos” (1954) and “Curved Form (Delphi)” (1955). Late career The artist greatly increased her studio space when she purchased the Palais de Danse, a cinema and dance studio, that was across the street from Trewyn in 1960. She used this new space to work on large-scale commissions. Hepworth also experimented with lithography in her late career. She produced two lithographic suites with the Curwen Gallery and its director Stanley Jones, one in 1969 and one in 1971. The latter was entitled “The Aegean Suite” (1971) and was inspired by Hepworth’s trip to Greece in 1954 with Margaret Gardiner. The artist also produced a set of lithographs entitled “Opposing Forms” (1970) with Marlborough Fine Art in London.

Barbara Hepworth died in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios on May 20, 1975 at the age of 72. Galleries holding her work There are two major museums dedicated specifically to the art of Barbara Hepworth: the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St. Ives and the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire. Her work also may be seen at: The University of Birmingham, Pier Art Gallery in Stromness Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New Zealand Marble portrait heads dating from London, ca. 1927, of Barbara Hepworth by John Skeaping, and of Skeaping by Hepworth, are documented by photograph in the Skeaping Retrospective catalogue, but are both believed to be lost. Commissions In 1951 Hepworth was commissioned by the Arts Council to create a piece for the Festival of Britain. The resulting work featured two Irish limestone figures entitled, “Contrapuntal Forms” (1950), which was displayed on London’s South Bank. To complete the large-scale piece Hepworth hired her first assistants, Terry Frost, Denis Mitchell, and John Wells. From 1949 onwards she worked with assistants, sixteen in all.

One of her most prestigious works is Single Form,[36] which was made in memory of her friend and collector of her works, the former Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, and which stands in the plaza of the United Nations building in New York City. It was commissioned by Jacob Blaustein, a former United States delegate to the U.N., in 1961 following Hammarskjöld’s death in a plane crash. Controversy On 20 December 2011, her 1969 sculpture Two Forms (Divided Circle) was stolen, from its plinth in Dulwich Park, South London, suspicions are that the theft was by scrap metal thieves. The piece, which had been in the park since 1970, was insured for £500,000, a spokesman for Southwark Council said. One of the edition of six of her 1964 bronze sculpture, Rock Form (Porthcurno), was removed from the Mander Centre in Wolverhampton in the spring of 2014 by its owners, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Dalancey Estates. Its sudden disappearance led to questions in Parliament in Sept.

2014. Paul Uppal, Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West said: “When the Rock Form was donated by the Mander family, it was done so in the belief it would be enjoyed and cherished by the people of Wolverhampton for generations… It belongs to, and should be enjoyed by, the City of Wolverhampton.” Recognition Hepworth was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1959 Sāo Paolo Bienal She also was awarded the Freedom of St. Ives award in 1968 as an acknowledgment of her significant contributions to the town. She was awarded honorary degrees from Birmingham (1960), Leeds (1961), Exeter (1966), Oxford (1968), London (1970), and Manchester (1971). She was appointed CBE in 1958 and DBE in 1965. In 1973 she was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Following her death, her studio and home in St. Ives became the Barbara Hepworth Museum, which came under control of the Tate in 1980.

In 2011, the Hepworth Wakefield opened in Hepworth’s hometown of Wakefield, England. The Museum was designed by the famed architect David Chipperfield. Gallery The St Ives School refers to a group of artists living and working in the Cornish town of St Ives. History The town became a magnet for artists following the extension to West Cornwall of the Great Western Railway in 1877. In 1920, Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada set up a pottery in St Ives, creating the town’s first international 20th-century art connection. In 1928, Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood visited St Ives where they were impressed by the work of local artist Alfred Wallis. This started the development of the Cornish fishing port as an artists’ colony. The St Ives School of Painting was established in the historic Porthmeor studios at the centre of St Ives’ artists’ quarter in 1938. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Ben Nicholson and his then wife the sculptress Barbara Hepworth settled in St Ives, establishing an outpost for the abstract avant-garde movement in West Cornwall.

They were soon joined by the prominent Russian Constructivist sculptor Naum Gabo. After the war ended, a new and younger generation of artists emerged, led by Hepworth and Nicholson (Gabo departed in 1946). From about 1950 a group of younger artists gathered in St Ives who included Peter Lanyon, John Wells, Roger Hilton, Bryan Wynter, Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, Alexander Mackenzie, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Stass Paraskos, Paul Feiler, and Karl Weschke together with the pioneer modern potter, Bernard Leach (Nicholson departed in 1958). It is with this group, together with Hepworth and Nicholson, that the term ‘St Ives School’ is particularly associated. A 2010, ninety-minute BBC4 film, “The Art of Cornwall,” presented by James Fox explored in some detail the lives and works of many of the key figures and the contributions they made in establishing St. Ives as a major centre of British art from the 1920s onwards. Helen Hoyle’s review of this programme is also very informative.

St Ives School today The heyday of the St Ives School was in the 1950s and 1960s but in 1993, Tate St Ives, a purpose-built new gallery overlooking Porthmeor Beach was opened which exhibits the Tate collection of St Ives School art. In 2010, a new chapter for the School and the Porthmeor Studios began with the start of renovations headed by The Borlase Smart John Wells Trust, supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Desperately in need of attention, over the years the historic building had suffered from the harsh conditions of its marine environment. While recent renovations have repaired and refurbished the Porthmeor Studios and ensured their future, the building’s character and charm remain unspoiled. Seventy-five years after its conception, the School now occupies a unique position and continues to provide a creative and imaginative space where students can expand their knowledge and develop their skills. The varied course programme attracts students from far and wide, to be taught by practicing artists in historic surroundings, at the centre of a thriving arts community.

It offers regular drop in life drawing sessions, short courses and family activities, suitable for everyone from the complete beginner to the professional artist. In addition to its popular art courses (taught by practicing artists), the School regularly holds various art events, including exhibitions and lectures, many of which occur during the St Ives September Festival. Benjamin Lauder “Ben” Nicholson, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was a British painter of abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscape and still-life. Background and training Ben Nicholson was born on 10 April 1894 in Denham, Buckinghamshire, the son of the painters Sir William Nicholson and Mabel Pryde, and brother to the artist Nancy Nicholson, the architect Christopher Nicholson and to Anthony Nicholson. His maternal grandmother Barbara Pryde (née Lauder) was a niece of the famous artist brothers Robert Scott Lauder and James Eckford Lauder. The family moved to London in 1896. Nicholson was educated at Tyttenhangar Lodge Preparatory School, Seaford, at Heddon Court, Hampstead and then as a boarder at Gresham’s School, Holt, Norfolk.

He trained as an artist in London at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1910–1914, where he was a contemporary of Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler, and Edward Wadsworth. Nicholson was married three times. His first marriage was to the painter Winifred Roberts; it took place on 5 November 1920 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London. Nicholson and Winifred had three children: a son, Jake, in June 1927; a daughter, Kate (who later also became a painter), in July 1929; and a son, Andrew, in September 1931. They were divorced in 1938. His second marriage was to fellow artist Barbara Hepworth on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office. Nicholson and Hepworth had triplets, two daughters, Sarah and Rachel, and a son, Simon, in 1934. They were divorced in 1951. The third and final marriage was to Felicitas Vogler, a German photographer.

They married in July 1957 and divorced in 1977. Life and works His first notable work was following a meeting with the playwright J. M. Barrie on holiday in Rustington, Sussex, in 1904. As a result of this meeting, Barrie used a drawing by Nicholson as the base for a poster for the play Peter Pan; his father William designed some of the sets and costumes. Nicholson was exempted from World War I military service due to asthma. He travelled to New York in 1917 for an operation on his tonsils, then visited other American cities, returning to Britain in 1918. Before he returned, Nicholson’s mother died in July of influenza and his brother Anthony Nicholson was killed in action. From 1920 to 1933, he was married to the painter Winifred Nicholson and lived in London. After Nicholson’s first exhibition of figurative works in London in 1922, his work began to be influenced by Synthetic Cubism, and later by the primitive style of Rousseau. In 1926, he became chair of the Seven and Five Society.

In London, Nicholson met the sculptors Barbara Hepworth (to whom he was married from 1938 to 1951) and Henry Moore. On visits to Paris he met Mondrian, whose work in the neoplastic style was to influence him in an abstract direction, and Picasso, whose cubism would also find its way into his work. His gift, however, was the ability to incorporate these European trends into a new style that was recognizably his own. He first visited St Ives, Cornwall, in 1928 with his fellow painter Christopher Wood, where he met the fisherman and painter, Alfred Wallis. In Paris in 1933 he made his first wood relief, White Relief, which contained only right angles and circles. In 1937 he was one of the editors of Circle, an influential monograph on constructivism. He believed that abstract art should be enjoyed by the general public, as shown by the Nicholson Wall, a mural he created for the garden of Sutton Place in Guildford, Surrey. In 1943 he joined the St. Ives Society of Artists.

A retrospective exhibition of his work was shown at the Tate Gallery in London in 1955. Nicholson married the photographer Felicitas Vogler in 1957 and moved to Castagnola, Switzerland, in 1958. In 1968 he received the British Order of Merit (OM). In 1971 he separated from Vogler and moved to Cambridge. In 1977 they divorced. Nicholson’s last home was in Pilgrim’s Lane, Hampstead. He died there on 6 February 1982, and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 12 February 1982. Some of Nicholson’s works can be seen at the Tate Gallery, Tate St Ives, Kettle’s Yard Art Gallery in Cambridge, and The Hepworth Wakefield. An auction record for this artist of $1,650,500 was set at Christie’s, New York, for Sept 53 (Balearic), an oil and pencil on canvas, on 1 November 2011.

His painting Fiddle and Spanish Guitar, in oil and gravel on masonite, was sold for €3,313,000 by Christie’s in Paris on 27 September 2012. Leave a reply Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. She was “one of the few women artists to achieve international prominence.” Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St. Ives during the Second World War. Early life Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest child of Gertrude and Herbert Hepworth. Her father was a civil engineer for the West Riding County Council, who in 1921 became County Surveyor. An upwardly mobile family, and a dominant father determined her to exploit fully her natural talents.

She attended Wakefield Girls High School, and won a scholarship to and studied at the Leeds School of Art from 1920. It was there that she met her fellow student, Henry Moore. They became friends and established a friendly rivalry that lasted professionally for many years. Hepworth was the first to sculpt the pierced figures that are characteristic of works by both. They would lead in the path to modernism in sculpture. Ever self-conscious as a woman in a man’s world, 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. Early career Following her studies at the RCA, Hepworth travelled to Florence, Italy in 1924 on a West Riding Travel Scholarship. Hepworth was also the runner-up for the Prix-de-Rome, which the sculptor John Skeaping won. After travelling together through Siena and Rome, Hepworth married Skeaping on 13 May 1925 in Florence. In Italy, Hepworth learned how to carve marble from the master sculptor, Giovanni Ardini.

Hepworth and Skeaping returned to London in 1926, where they exhibited their works together from their flat. Their son Paul was born in London in 1929.Her early work was highly interested in abstraction and art movements on the continent. In 1933, Hepworth travelled to France with Ben Nicholson, where they visited the studios of Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, and Constantin Brâncuşi. Hepworth later became involved with the Paris-based art movement, Abstraction-Création. In 1933, Hepworth co-founded the Unit One art movement with the artists Paul Nash and Ben Nicholson, critic Herbert Read, and the architect Wells Coates.[7] The movement sought to unite Surrealism and abstraction in British art. Hepworth also helped raise awareness of continental artists amongst the British public. In 1937 she designed the layout for Circle: An International Survey of Constructivist Art, a 300-page book that surveyed Constructivist artists and that was published in London and edited by Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo, and Leslie Martin.

Hepworth married the painter Ben Nicholson on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office, following his divorce from his wife Winifred. The couple had triplets in 1934, Rachel, Sarah, and Simon. Rachel and Simon also became artists. The couple would divorce in 1951. St. Ives Hepworth, her husband Ben Nicholson and their children first visited Cornwall at the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Hepworth lived in Trewyn Studios in St. Ives from 1949 until her death in 1975. Hepworth said that “Finding Trewyn Studio was sort of magic. Here was a studio, a yard, and garden where I could work in open air and space.” St. Ives had become a refuge for many artists during the war. On 8 February 1949, Hepworth and Nicholson co-founded the Penwith Society of Arts at the Castle Inn; nineteen artists were founding members, including Peter Lanyon and Bernard Leach. Hepworth was also a skilled draughtsman.

After her daughter Sarah was hospitalized in 1944, she struck up a close friendship with the surgeon Norman Capener. At Capener’s invitation, she was invited to view surgical procedures and, between 1947-1949, she produced nearly eighty drawings of operating rooms in chalk, ink, and pencil. Hepworth was fascinated by the similarities between surgeons and artists, stating: “There is, it seems to me, a close affinity between the work and approach of both physicians and surgeons, and painters and sculptors.” In 1950, works by Hepworth were exhibited in the British Pavilion at the XXV Venice Biennale alongside works by Matthew Smith and John Constable. The 1950 Biennale was the last time that contemporary British artists were exhibited alongside artists from the past. During this period, Hepworth moved away from working only in stone or wood and began to work with bronze. Hepworth often used her garden in St. Ives, which she designed with her friend the composer Priaulx Rainier, to view her large-scale bronzes.

Death of son Paul Her eldest son, Paul, was killed on 13 February 1953 in a plane crash while serving with the Royal Air Force in Thailand. A memorial to him, Madonna and Child, is in the parish church of St. Ives. Exhausted in part from her son’s death, Hepworth travelled to Greece with her good friend Margaret Gardiner in August 1954.They visited Athens, Delphi, and many of the Aegean Islands. When Hepworth returned to St.Ives from Greece in August 1954, she found that Gardiner had sent her a large shipment of Nigerian Guarea hardwood. Although she received only a single tree trunk, Hepworth noted that the shipment from Nigeria to the Tilbury docks came in at 17 tons. Between 1954-1956 Hepworth sculpted six pieces out of Guarea wood, many of which were inspired by her trip to Greece, such as “Corinthos” (1954) and “Curved Form (Delphi)” (1955).

Late career The artist greatly increased her studio space when she purchased the Palais de Danse, a cinema and dance studio, that was across the street from Trewyn in 1960. She used this new space to work on large-scale commissions. Hepworth also experimented with lithography in her late career. She produced two lithographic suites with the Curwen Gallery and its director Stanley Jones, one in 1969 and one in 1971. The latter was entitled “The Aegean Suite” (1971) and was inspired by Hepworth’s trip to Greece in 1954 with Margaret Gardiner. The artist also produced a set of lithographs entitled “Opposing Forms” (1970) with Marlborough Fine Art in London. Barbara Hepworth died in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios on May 20, 1975 at the age of 72. Galleries holding her work There are two major museums dedicated specifically to the art of Barbara Hepworth: the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St. Ives and the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire.

Her work also may be seen at: The University of Birmingham, The School of Music at Cardiff University, Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, West Yorkshire Clare College, Murray Edwards College (formerly New Hall), Cambridge Snape Maltings, Snape, Suffolk On the facade of the John Lewis department store, part of the John Lewis Partnership, on Oxford Street The Mander Centre, Wolverhampton (removed 2014) Kenwood House On the grounds of Winchester Cathedral next to The Pilgrims’ School Leeds Art Gallery Pier Art Gallery in Stromness Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New Zealand Marble portrait heads dating from London, ca. 1927, of Barbara Hepworth by John Skeaping, and of Skeaping by Hepworth, are documented by photograph in the Skeaping Retrospective catalogue, but are both believed to be lost. Commissions In 1951 Hepworth was commissioned by the Arts Council to create a piece for the Festival of Britain. The resulting work featured two Irish limestone figures entitled, “Contrapuntal Forms” (1950), which was displayed on London’s South Bank.

To complete the large-scale piece Hepworth hired her first assistants, Terry Frost, Denis Mitchell, and John Wells. From 1949 onwards she worked with assistants, sixteen in all. One of her most prestigious works is Single Form,[36] which was made in memory of her friend and collector of her works, the former Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, and which stands in the plaza of the United Nations building in New York City. It was commissioned by Jacob Blaustein, a former United States delegate to the U.N., in 1961 following Hammarskjöld’s death in a plane crash. Controversy On 20 December 2011, her 1969 sculpture Two Forms (Divided Circle) was stolen, from its plinth in Dulwich Park, South London, suspicions are that the theft was by scrap metal thieves. The piece, which had been in the park since 1970, was insured for £500,000, a spokesman for Southwark Council said.

One of the edition of six of her 1964 bronze sculpture, Rock Form (Porthcurno), was removed from the Mander Centre in Wolverhampton in the spring of 2014 by its owners, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Dalancey Estates. Its sudden disappearance led to questions in Parliament in Sept. 2014. Paul Uppal, Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West said: “When the Rock Form was donated by the Mander family, it was done so in the belief it would be enjoyed and cherished by the people of Wolverhampton for generations… It belongs to, and should be enjoyed by, the City of Wolverhampton.” Recognition Hepworth was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1959 Sāo Paolo Bienal She also was awarded the Freedom of St. Ives award in 1968 as an acknowledgment of her significant contributions to the town. She was awarded honorary degrees from Birmingham (1960), Leeds (1961), Exeter (1966), Oxford (1968), London (1970), and Manchester (1971).

She was appointed CBE in 1958 and DBE in 1965. In 1973 she was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Following her death, her studio and home in St. Ives became the Barbara Hepworth Museum, which came under control of the Tate in 1980. In 2011, the Hepworth Wakefield opened in Hepworth’s hometown of Wakefield, England. The Museum was designed by the famed architect David Chipperfield. List of selected works Barbara Hepworth — Lefevre Fine Art Instagram Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth DBE (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. She was "one of the few women artists to achieve international prominence." Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St Ives during the Second World War.

Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest child of Gertrude and Herbert Hepworth. Her father was a civil engineer for the West Riding County Council, who in 1921 became County Surveyor. An upwardly mobile family, and a dominant father determined her to exploit fully her natural talents. She attended Wakefield Girls' High School, and won a scholarship to and studied at the Leeds School of Art from 1920. It was there that she met her fellow student, Henry Moore. They became friends and established a friendly rivalry that lasted professionally for many years. Hepworth was the first to sculpt the pierced figures that are characteristic of works by both. They would lead in the path to modernism in sculpture. Ever self-conscious as a woman in a man's world, she then won a county scholarship to the Royal College of Art (RCA) and studied there from 1921 until she was awarded the diploma of the Royal College of Art in 1924. Following her studies at the RCA, Hepworth travelled to Florence, Italy, in 1924 on a West Riding Travel Scholarship.

Hepworth was also the runner-up for the Prix-de-Rome, which the sculptor John Skeaping won. After travelling together through Siena and Rome, Hepworth married Skeaping on 13 May 1925 in Florence. In Italy, Hepworth learned how to carve marble from the master sculptor, Giovanni Ardini.Hepworth and Skeaping returned to London in 1926, where they exhibited their works together from their flat. Their son Paul was born in London in 1929. Her early work was highly interested in abstraction and art movements on the continent. In 1933, Hepworth travelled with Ben Nicholson to France, where they visited the studios of Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso. Hepworth later became involved with the Paris-based art movement, Abstraction-Création. In 1933, Hepworth co-founded the Unit One art movement with Nicholson and Paul Nash, the critic Herbert Read, and the architect Wells Coates. The movement sought to unite Surrealism and abstraction in British art. Hepworth also helped raise awareness of continental artists amongst the British public.

In 1937, she designed the layout for Circle: An International Survey of Constructivist Art, a 300-page book that surveyed Constructivist artists and that was published in London and edited by Nicholson, Naum Gabo, and Leslie Martin. Hepworth married Nicholson on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office in north London, following his divorce from his wife Winifred. The couple had triplets in 1934, Rachel, Sarah, and Simon. Rachel and Simon also became artists. The couple divorced in 1951. Hepworth, Nicholson and their children first visited Cornwall at the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Hepworth lived in Trewyn Studios in St Ives from 1949 until her death in 1975. She said that "Finding Trewyn Studio was sort of magic. Here was a studio, a yard, and garden where I could work in open air and space." St Ives had become a refuge for many artists during the war.

On 8 February 1949, Hepworth and Nicholson co-founded the Penwith Society of Arts at the Castle Inn; nineteen artists were founding members, including Peter Lanyon and Bernard Leach. Hepworth was also a skilled draughtsman. After her daughter Sarah was hospitalized in 1944, she struck up a close friendship with the surgeon Norman Capener. At Capener's invitation, she was invited to view surgical procedures and, between 1947-1949, she produced nearly eighty drawings of operating rooms in chalk, ink, and pencil. Hepworth was fascinated by the similarities between surgeons and artists, stating: "There is, it seems to me, a close affinity between the work and approach of both physicians and surgeons, and painters and sculptors." In 1950, works by Hepworth were exhibited in the British Pavilion at the XXV Venice Biennale[2] alongside works by Matthew Smith and John Constable. The 1950 Biennale was the last time that contemporary British artists were exhibited alongside artists from the past. During this period, Hepworth moved away from working only in stone or wood and began to work with bronze.

Hepworth often used her garden in St Ives, which she designed with her friend the composer Priaulx Rainier, to view her large-scale bronzes. Her eldest son, Paul, was killed on 13 February 1953 in a plane crash while serving with the Royal Air Force in Thailand. A memorial to him, Madonna and Child, is in the parish church of St Ives. Exhausted in part from her son's death, Hepworth travelled to Greece with her good friend Margaret Gardiner in August 1954. They visited Athens, Delphi, and many of the Aegean Islands. When Hepworth returned to St.Ives from Greece in August 1954, she found that Gardiner had sent her a large shipment of Nigerian guarea hardwood. Although she received only a single tree trunk, Hepworth noted that the shipment from Nigeria to the Tilbury docks came in at 17 tons.

Between 1954-1956 Hepworth sculpted six pieces out of guarea wood, many of which were inspired by her trip to Greece, such as "Corinthos" (1954) and "Curved Form (Delphi)" (1955). The artist greatly increased her studio space when she purchased the Palais de Danse, a cinema and dance studio, that was across the street from Trewyn in 1960. She used this new space to work on large-scale commissions. Hepworth also experimented with lithography in her late career. She produced two lithographic suites with the Curwen Gallery and its director Stanley Jones, one in 1969 and one in 1971. The latter was entitled "The Aegean Suite" (1971) and was inspired by Hepworth's trip to Greece in 1954 with Margaret Gardiner. The artist also produced a set of lithographs entitled "Opposing Forms" (1970) with Marlborough Fine Art in London.

Barbara Hepworth died in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios on 20 May 1975 at the age of 72. Blog Blog Terms and Conditions Register If you are not registered you can do it now. It will take less than one minute. Register Register now to open a licensing account with Bridgeman Please choose a password with at least 5 characters, and include at least one number Confirm password Send me Bridgeman news, events and special offers Accept terms Interested in a fine art print? Please click here Please enter your details below and we will get back to you with your username and password Katrina Hinrichsen Barbara Hepworth: A Retrospective English artist Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903 - 1975) is credited for being ‘one of the few women artists to achieve international prominence’ *. Her art is renowned for exemplifying Modernism and in particular modernist sculpture. This summer, you will get the chance to view a major retrospective of the artist and sculptor's works. In view of the exhibitions and the 40 year anniversary of her death, here are eight fascinating facts about Barbara Hepworth: 1. Life in St.

Ives Barbara Hepworth in the Garden of her St. Ives Home, Cornwall, 1953 / Brian Seed / Bridgeman Images Hepworth was a famous figure in the colony of artists who resided in St. Ives and lived during the Second World War. She produced her most famous work in the Cornish fishing village and resort, and was given the Freedom of St. Ives award in 1968 in acknowledgement of her contributions to the community. Other artists of the era included abstract painter Ben Nicholson (Hepworth’s second husband) and sculptor Naum Gabo . 2. Education and Moore Three Figures from the Family of Man, Ancestor I, Ancestor II and Parent I / c.1970 by Barbara Hepworth / On Loan to the Maltings, Snape, Suffolk, UK / The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK / Bridgeman Images The artist was a young student at Wakefield Girls High School. In 1920 she enrolled at the Leeds School of Art after being awarded a full scholarship. Here she encountered another prominent British sculptor, Henry Moore . They became friends and established a friendly rivalry that lasted professionally for several years.

She was the first to sculpt the pierced figures that are characteristic of works by both artists. 3. Italy: Art and Love Drawing for Sculpture / 1940 by Barbara Hepworth / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images The talented student received another scholarship in 1921 from the Royal College of Art. In 1924 she travelled to Florence using the money from the West Riding Travel Scholarship that she had won. She spent the first few months there studying Romanesque and early Renaissance art and architecture in Tuscany. During this time, she was the second champion for the Prix de Rome. She lost out on the first prize to John Skeaping , whom she married the following year in Florence before moving to live together in Rome. 4. Mastering Marble Three Spheres Family Group / C20th by Barbara Hepworth / Photo Credit: Peter Kinnear /Bridgeman Images The master sculptor Giovanni Ardini was a huge inspiration to Hepworth. He taught her how to carve marble when she was in Italy. She then came back to London to exhibit her works in her flat in St. John's Wood, where collector George Eumorfopoulos bought a couple of her pieces. 5.

Early Inspirations Mother and Child / 1927 by Barbara Hepworth / Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada / Bridgeman Images In the early stages of her artistic career, the character of Hepworth’s works was focused on abstraction, particularly after she visited the studios of Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brâncusi and Jean Arp. She later co-founded the Unit One art movement which sought to unite abstraction and Surrealism in British art. Untitled Abstract Composition / 1955 by Barbara Hepworth / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images 6. Hands-On Hospital Preparation / 1947 by Barbara Hepworth / Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, Devon, UK / Bridgeman Images In contrast to most of her other works, Hepworth also created a remarkable series of drawings and paintings in the late 1940s that illustrated surgeons at work in operating theatres in Post-War Britain. The artist first became fascinated with surgeons following the hospitalisation of her daughter Sarah in 1944 and the subsequent friendship with surgeon Norman Capener. She was invited to witness a variety of procedures in London and Exeter, which led to her producing over 80 related works over a two-year period.

The series highlights Hepworth's less well-known skill as a draughtsperson. The artist paid special attention to the surgeons' hands, and believed there to be 'a close affinity between the work and approach both of physicians and surgeons, and painters and sculptors' *. 7. Unsuspecting Deaths Madonna and Child/ 1953 by Barbara Hepworth / Private Collection / Photo Credit: Peter Nahum, The Leicester Galleries, London / Bridgeman Images Hepworth's eldest son from her first marriage, Paul, was killed on 13 February 1953 in a plane crash while serving with the Royal Air Force in Thailand. A memorial to him, 'Madonna and Child', is held in the parish church of St. Ives. Exhausted in part from her son's death, Hepworth travelled to Greece in August 1954 with her good friend, artist Margaret Gardiner . They visited Delphi, Athens and many of the Aegean Islands, and some of Hepworth's works were influenced by these regions. Barbara Hepworth herself died in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios on 20 May 1975 at the age of 72. 8.

Banking on Barbara Portrait of Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903 - 75) seated in her garden next to one of her sculptures / Photo credit: Peter Kinnear / Bridgeman Images In light of all her achievements, art experts and members of the Cornish community in particular believe that Dame Hepworth should be honoured as the face of the new £20 bank note . Out of over 1,500 artists submitted, she is currently one of the leading contenders and the only woman among the likely candidates. Not only does she stand out as an important female artist of her time, but also as one who is still highly influential today. The winner will be decided by the Bank of England, but would Barbara Hepworth get your vote? Currently her odds stand at 12/1 , while Henry Moore's chances are 33/1. Find out More Tate Britain is staging the first large London display of Hepworth’s work in almost 50 years. It will bring together over 70 of her pieces, including her well-known major abstract carvings and even unseen photographs from the Hepworth archive.Visit from 24 June – 25 Oct 2015.

To coincide with Tate Britain, The Hepworth Wakefield will also be presenting the artist’s early years growing up in Yorkshire and evidence of her natural talent. Visit from 16 May – 6 Sep 2015. Images for Licensing View more Barbara Hepworth images in the Bridgeman archive. Get in touch with the Bridgeman team on uksales@bridgemanimages.com with enquiries about licensing and clearing copyright. ________ St I R&R | Alex R | Glass Design Search for: St I R&R After the frenetic pace of work in the previous few weeks, July arrived with a sigh of relief because that meant it was time for our week’s rest and relaxation down in St Ives. The seven hour drive was pretty relentless but arriving on Saturday evening to our fabulous apartment with spectacular views across St Ives’ best beach made it all worth it. My son and I got straight into our swimmers and had an evening dip! We were staying in a fantastic split level studio apartment in an iconic 1960s building.

Designed by architect Henry Gilbert, the Piazza-Barnaloft apartment block won an architectural prize for its modern design which was awarded by Arthur Ling who had been the Chief Planning Officer for London until 1955. Ling had evidently liked the building so much he bought one of the flats, and here we were half a century later staying in that same flat, thanks to his daughter who is a friend of my mother. Our bedroom balcony had views across the rooftops of St Ives and the main balcony overlooked Porthmeor Beach, a beautiful sandy beach with good waves for the body builders and surfers. I took photos all week from the balcony of the changing weather and changing tides. Image credits: We were a few minutes’ walk from Tate St Ives with its magical Patrick Heron windows in the foyer. Up the steps and down the hill towards the seafront, was the Barbara Hepworth Museum which was based in the house and studio that she occupied for the last twenty five years years of her life and it was just how I remember it from my last visit almost two decades ago.

Image credit: hepworth.org.uk This time, there was a touch of pathos about seeing Barbara’s sculpture Two Forms (Divided Circle) which was her equivalent of the artist’s proof; she had made six versions, one of which had been standing in my local park for the past 35 year until it was recently stolen for scrap metal. Image credit: I loved the Hepworth Museum, originally known as Trewyn Studios, with its various connnected outbuildings where the stone was carved and its garden where the finished sculptures were displayed just as they had been while she lived there. Visiting the Leach Pottery another day I was struck again by how fine the line is between live and work for artists doing both in the same building. Bernard Leach installed a kiln in the pottery in 1923 which lasted longer than Leach’s three marriages! The kiln wasn’t replaced until after the end of his potting days in 1975. This was the same year Barbara Hepworth died in an accidental fire caused as a result of her nightly habit of a cigarette in bed, in the same room in which she started off stone carving her monumental sculptures.

We listened to an excellent local guide talking about Hepworth and bringing a more personal take to her story. He explained how she had walked past the tall walls of Trewyn Studios for ten years on the way back from doing her shopping, never knowing what was behind them; it wasn’t until the building came up for sale that she realised how perfect it was as a space in which to live and work. This aspect of the story particularly spoke to me as I am currently in the process of looking for a house and studio – I’ve looked for three months now and there are very few places that would work….if only there were a Trewyn Studio in London for me! People : Dame Barbara Hepworth, Artist, Sculptor, Modernism and a St Ives Garden…….. | stuartshieldgardendesign People : Dame Barbara Hepworth, Artist, Sculptor, Modernism and a St Ives Garden…….. Leave a reply Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture.

She was “one of the few women artists to achieve international prominence.” Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St. Ives during the Second World War. Early life Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest child of Gertrude and Herbert Hepworth. Her father was a civil engineer for the West Riding County Council, who in 1921 became County Surveyor. An upwardly mobile family, and a dominant father determined her to exploit fully her natural talents. She attended Wakefield Girls High School, and won a scholarship to and studied at the Leeds School of Art from 1920. It was there that she met her fellow student, Henry Moore. They became friends and established a friendly rivalry that lasted professionally for many years. Hepworth was the first to sculpt the pierced figures that are characteristic of works by both. They would lead in the path to modernism in sculpture.

Ever self-conscious as a woman in a man’s world, 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. Early career Following her studies at the RCA, Hepworth travelled to Florence, Italy in 1924 on a West Riding Travel Scholarship. Hepworth was also the runner-up for the Prix-de-Rome, which the sculptor John Skeaping won. After travelling together through Siena and Rome, Hepworth married Skeaping on 13 May 1925 in Florence. In Italy, Hepworth learned how to carve marble from the master sculptor, Giovanni Ardini. Hepworth and Skeaping returned to London in 1926, where they exhibited their works together from their flat. Their son Paul was born in London in 1929.Her early work was highly interested in abstraction and art movements on the continent. In 1933, Hepworth travelled to France with Ben Nicholson, where they visited the studios of Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, and Constantin Brâncuşi.

Hepworth later became involved with the Paris-based art movement, Abstraction-Création. In 1933, Hepworth co-founded the Unit One art movement with the artists Paul Nash and Ben Nicholson, critic Herbert Read, and the architect Wells Coates.[7] The movement sought to unite Surrealism and abstraction in British art. Hepworth also helped raise awareness of continental artists amongst the British public. In 1937 she designed the layout for Circle: An International Survey of Constructivist Art, a 300-page book that surveyed Constructivist artists and that was published in London and edited by Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo, and Leslie Martin. Hepworth married the painter Ben Nicholson on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office, following his divorce from his wife Winifred. The couple had triplets in 1934, Rachel, Sarah, and Simon. Rachel and Simon also became artists. The couple would divorce in 1951. St. Ives Hepworth, her husband Ben Nicholson and their children first visited Cornwall at the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Hepworth lived in Trewyn Studios in St.

Ives from 1949 until her death in 1975. Hepworth said that “Finding Trewyn Studio was sort of magic. Here was a studio, a yard, and garden where I could work in open air and space.” St. Ives had become a refuge for many artists during the war. On 8 February 1949, Hepworth and Nicholson co-founded the Penwith Society of Arts at the Castle Inn; nineteen artists were founding members, including Peter Lanyon and Bernard Leach. Hepworth was also a skilled draughtsman. After her daughter Sarah was hospitalized in 1944, she struck up a close friendship with the surgeon Norman Capener. At Capener’s invitation, she was invited to view surgical procedures and, between 1947-1949, she produced nearly eighty drawings of operating rooms in chalk, ink, and pencil.

Hepworth was fascinated by the similarities between surgeons and artists, stating: “There is, it seems to me, a close affinity between the work and approach of both physicians and surgeons, and painters and sculptors.” In 1950, works by Hepworth were exhibited in the British Pavilion at the XXV Venice Biennale alongside works by Matthew Smith and John Constable. The 1950 Biennale was the last time that contemporary British artists were exhibited alongside artists from the past. During this period, Hepworth moved away from working only in stone or wood and began to work with bronze. Hepworth often used her garden in St. Ives, which she designed with her friend the composer Priaulx Rainier, to view her large-scale bronzes. Death of son Paul Her eldest son, Paul, was killed on 13 February 1953 in a plane crash while serving with the Royal Air Force in Thailand. A memorial to him, Madonna and Child, is in the parish church of St. Ives.

Exhausted in part from her son’s death, Hepworth travelled to Greece with her good friend Margaret Gardiner in August 1954.They visited Athens, Delphi, and many of the Aegean Islands. When Hepworth returned to St.Ives from Greece in August 1954, she found that Gardiner had sent her a large shipment of Nigerian Guarea hardwood. Although she received only a single tree trunk, Hepworth noted that the shipment from Nigeria to the Tilbury docks came in at 17 tons. Between 1954-1956 Hepworth sculpted six pieces out of Guarea wood, many of which were inspired by her trip to Greece, such as “Corinthos” (1954) and “Curved Form (Delphi)” (1955). Late career The artist greatly increased her studio space when she purchased the Palais de Danse, a cinema and dance studio, that was across the street from Trewyn in 1960. She used this new space to work on large-scale commissions. Hepworth also experimented with lithography in her late career.

She produced two lithographic suites with the Curwen Gallery and its director Stanley Jones, one in 1969 and one in 1971. The latter was entitled “The Aegean Suite” (1971) and was inspired by Hepworth’s trip to Greece in 1954 with Margaret Gardiner. The artist also produced a set of lithographs entitled “Opposing Forms” (1970) with Marlborough Fine Art in London. Barbara Hepworth died in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios on May 20, 1975 at the age of 72. Galleries holding her work There are two major museums dedicated specifically to the art of Barbara Hepworth: the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St. Ives and the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire.

Her work also may be seen at: The University of Birmingham, The School of Music at Cardiff University, Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, West Yorkshire Clare College, Murray Edwards College (formerly New Hall), Cambridge Snape Maltings, Snape, Suffolk On the facade of the John Lewis department store, part of the John Lewis Partnership, on Oxford Street The Mander Centre, Wolverhampton (removed 2014) Kenwood House On the grounds of Winchester Cathedral next to The Pilgrims’ School Leeds Art Gallery Pier Art Gallery in Stromness Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New Zealand Marble portrait heads dating from London, ca. 1927, of Barbara Hepworth by John Skeaping, and of Skeaping by Hepworth, are documented by photograph in the Skeaping Retrospective catalogue, but are both believed to be lost. Commissions In 1951 Hepworth was commissioned by the Arts Council to create a piece for the Festival of Britain. The resulting work featured two Irish limestone figures entitled, “Contrapuntal Forms” (1950), which was displayed on London’s South Bank.

To complete the large-scale piece Hepworth hired her first assistants, Terry Frost, Denis Mitchell, and John Wells. From 1949 onwards she worked with assistants, sixteen in all. One of her most prestigious works is Single Form,[36] which was made in memory of her friend and collector of her works, the former Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, and which stands in the plaza of the United Nations building in New York City. It was commissioned by Jacob Blaustein, a former United States delegate to the U.N., in 1961 following Hammarskjöld’s death in a plane crash. Controversy On 20 December 2011, her 1969 sculpture Two Forms (Divided Circle) was stolen, from its plinth in Dulwich Park, South London, suspicions are that the theft was by scrap metal thieves. The piece, which had been in the park since 1970, was insured for £500,000, a spokesman for Southwark Council said.

One of the edition of six of her 1964 bronze sculpture, Rock Form (Porthcurno), was removed from the Mander Centre in Wolverhampton in the spring of 2014 by its owners, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Dalancey Estates. Its sudden disappearance led to questions in Parliament in Sept. 2014. Paul Uppal, Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West said: “When the Rock Form was donated by the Mander family, it was done so in the belief it would be enjoyed and cherished by the people of Wolverhampton for generations… It belongs to, and should be enjoyed by, the City of Wolverhampton.” Recognition Hepworth was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1959 Sāo Paolo Bienal She also was awarded the Freedom of St. Ives award in 1968 as an acknowledgment of her significant contributions to the town. She was awarded honorary degrees from Birmingham (1960), Leeds (1961), Exeter (1966), Oxford (1968), London (1970), and Manchester (1971).

She was appointed CBE in 1958 and DBE in 1965. In 1973 she was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Following her death, her studio and home in St. Ives became the Barbara Hepworth Museum, which came under control of the Tate in 1980. In 2011, the Hepworth Wakefield opened in Hepworth’s hometown of Wakefield, England. The Museum was designed by the famed architect David Chipperfield. List of selected works Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden | Tate Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden Discover the magical home and unique garden of artist Barbara Hepworth Google+ Visiting the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden offers a remarkable insight into the work and outlook of one of Britain’s most important twentieth century artists. Sculptures in bronze, stone and wood are on display in the museum and garden, along with paintings, drawings and archive material. Barbara Hepworth first came to live in Cornwall with her husband Ben Nicholson and their young family at the outbreak of war in 1939.

She lived and worked in Trewyn studios – now the Barbara Hepworth Museum – from 1949 until her death in 1975. Following her wish to establish her home and studio as a museum of her work, Trewyn Studio and much of the artist’s work remaining there was given to the nation and placed in the care of the Tate Gallery in 1980. ‘Finding Trewyn Studio was a sort of magic’, wrote Barbara Hepworth. ‘Here was a studio, a yard and garden where I could work in open air and space.’ When she first arrived at Trewyn Studio, Hepworth was still largely preoccupied with stone and wood carving, but during the 1950s she increasingly made sculpture in bronze as well. This led her to create works on a more monumental scale, for which she used the garden as a viewing area. Most of the bronzes are in the positions in which the artist herself placed them. The garden itself was laid out by Barbara Hepworth with help from a friend, the composer Priaulx Rainier. Events

Question: Which sculptress died in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios in 1975?
Answer: Barbara Hepworth