Barbara Hepworth

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Barbara Hepworth

Dame

Dame (title)

Dame is the female equivalent of address to Sir for a United Kingdom knighthood. In the UK honours system, this can be the title of a woman who has been made a Dame Commander or Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Order of St Michael and St George, Royal Victorian Order, or Order of the British Empire....
Barbara Hepworth DBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom....
(10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975, christened

Christening

Christening may refer to:*Baptism*Infant baptism*Ship naming and launching...
Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth) was a major British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
sculptor

Sculpture

Sculpture is Three-dimensional space artwork created by shaping or combining hard and or plastic material, sound, and or text and or light, commonly Stone sculpture , metal, glass, or wood....
and artist

Artist

The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art....
of the twentieth century.

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Encyclopedia

Dame

Dame (title)

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom....
(10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975, christened

Christening

Christening may refer to:*Baptism*Infant baptism*Ship naming and launching...
Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth) was a major British

United Kingdom

Sculpture

Artist

The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art....
of the twentieth century. She was a contemporary and friend of Henry Moore

Henry Moore

Henry Spencer Moore Order of Merit Companion of Honour Federation of British Artists was an English artist and Sculpture. He is best known for his abstract art monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as Public art....
.

Life and work

Hepworth was born in Wakefield

Wakefield

Wakefield lies at the heart of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder, it had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England by population....
, attended Wakefield Girls High School

Wakefield Girls High School

Wakefield Girls' High School is a private school in Wakefield, England established in 1878 in Wentworth House, its current location. The school has grown from 59 pupils when it first began to nearly 750 at the present day ....
, 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

Royal College of Art

The Royal College of Art is a university in London, England, United Kingdom. It is the world?s only wholly postgraduate art and design institution, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy....
and studied there from 1921 until she awarded the diploma of the Royal College of Art in 1924. She later studied for a period in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
.

Barbara Hepworth is one of the most significant sculptors and artists of the 20th century. Her work exemplifies Modernism

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century....
and along with her contemporaries in England such as Ivon Hitchens

Ivon Hitchens

Ivon Hitchens was an English painting who started exhibiting during the 1920s. He became part of the 'London Group' of artists and exhibited with them during the 1930s....
, Henry Moore

Henry Moore

Ben Nicholson

Benjamin Lauder Nicholson Order of Merit, , known as Ben Nicholson, was an England abstract art....
, Naum Gabo

Naum Gabo

Naum Gabo Order of the British Empire, born Naum Neemia Pevsner was a prominent Russian sculpture in the Constructivism movement and a pioneer of Kinetic Art....
and others she helped to develop modern art (sculpture in particular) immeasurably.

One of her most prestigious works is Single Form, in memory of her friend and collector of her works Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskj?ld was a Swedish diplomat, Christian mystic, and the second United Nations Secretary-General of the United Nations....
, at the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
building in New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. 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

John Skeaping

John Rattenbury Skeaping, RA was an English sculpture and equine painter.Born in South Woodford, Essex, Skeaping studied at Goldsmith's College, London, and later at the Royal Academy....
, with whom she had a son, Paul, in 1929. Her second marriage was to the painter Ben Nicholson

Ben Nicholson

Benjamin Lauder Nicholson Order of Merit, , known as Ben Nicholson, was an England abstract art....
. They married on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office. The couple had triplets in 1934, Simon, Rachel and Sarah; Simon

Simon Nicholson

Simon Nicholson was the son of artist Ben Nicholson and his second wife, sculptor Barbara Hepworth who later became an artist himself.Born, one of triplets, in Hampstead in 1934, Simon Nicholson attended Dartington Hall School before studying sculpture at the Royal College of Art from 1953 to 1954 and then archaeology and anthropology at Tr...
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

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts....
in Thailand; Hepworth created a a memorial to him, entitled Madonna and Child, in the church in St Ives.

She was made a Dame

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom....
in 1965, ten years before her death during a fire in her St Ives

St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives is a seaside resort, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne....
studio in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall , constitutional Duchy and palatine, is a metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England of England, United Kingdom, located at the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain....
, aged seventy-two. The studio and her home now form the Barbara Hepworth Museum

Barbara Hepworth Museum

The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives, Cornwall, Cornwall preserves the 20th century sculpture Barbara Hepworth's studio and garden much as they were when she lived and worked there....
.

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

Her work may also be seen at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, the School of Music at Cardiff University, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is an open-air art organisation, showing work by UK and international artists, including notably Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth....
in West Bretton

West Bretton

West Bretton is a village in the county of West Yorkshire, England, 7 miles from Wakefield city centre and just off junction 38 of the M1 motorway....
, West Yorkshire; Clare College

Clare College, Cambridge

Clare College is a college of the University of Cambridge, the second oldest surviving college after Peterhouse, Cambridge.Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens, which form part of what is known as the Backs, the back of the colleges that overlook the River Cam....
, Churchill College

Churchill College, Cambridge

Churchill College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge and was founded in 1958 as the national and Commonwealth of Nations memorial to Winston Churchill....
and Murray Edwards College (formerly New Hall), Cambridge

Cambridge

The city status in the United Kingdom of Cambridge is a College town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about 50 miles north of London....
; Snape Maltings

Snape Maltings

Snape Maltings is part of Snape, Suffolk, United Kingdom, best known for its concert hall, which is one of the main sites of the annual Aldeburgh Festival....
, Snape, Suffolk; and on view in or attached to the John Lewis department store

John Lewis (department store)

John Lewis is a chain of upmarket department stores operating throughout Great Britain and popular amongst the British middle class for its high quality goods....
, part of the John Lewis Partnership

John Lewis Partnership

The John Lewis Partnership is a major United Kingdom retailer which operates John Lewis department stores, Waitrose supermarkets and the direct services company Greenbee....
, in Oxford Street

Oxford Street

Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in London, England in the City of Westminster. With over 300 shops, it is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as the most dense....
(see picture); and Kenwood House

Kenwood House

Kenwood House is a former stately home, in Hampstead, London, on the northern boundary of Hampstead Heath. It is managed by English Heritage....
, both in London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
. Her 1966 work "Construction (Crucifixion): Homage to Mondrian" can be seen in the grounds of Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral at Winchester, Hampshire in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic architecture cathedral in Europe....
next to the The Pilgrims' School

The Pilgrims' School

The Pilgrims' School, Winchester, is a boys' Preparatory School - with a co-ed pre-prep extension - in the Cathedral Close in Winchester, Hampshire - an ancient capital of England....
. The Tate Gallery

Tate Gallery

Tate is the United Kingdom's national museum of British and Modern Art, and is a network of four art galleries in England: Tate Britain , Tate Liverpool , Tate St Ives and Tate Modern , with a complementary website, Tate Online ....
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

Margaret Gardiner (artist)

Margaret Gardiner was a radical modern British artist and resident of Hampstead, London, from 1932, where she was also a left wing political activist....
's rear garden in Hampstead

Hampstead

Hampstead is an area of London, England, located north-west of Charing Cross. It is part of the London Borough of Camden. It is situated within Inner London....
is now at the Pier Art Gallery

Pier Art Gallery

The Pier Art Gallery in Stromness, Orkney, was opened to the public in 1979. Margaret Gardiner 1904-2005 first visited the Orkneys in the 1950s and converted the old quay-side building to house her collection of modern paintings and sculpture ....
in Stromness

Stromness

Stromness /'str?mn?s/ is the second-largest town in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, and is located in the south-west of the Mainland, Orkney of Orkney....
together with 67 other works donated by Gardiner. Trevalgan was Hepworth's first entire bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other chemical element such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon....
form.

Gallery

List of selected works

Oval Form (Trezion) >

1928	Doves	Parian marble Parian marble Parian marble is a fine-grained semitranslucent pure-white marble quarried during the classical antiquity era on the Greece island of Paros. It was highly prized by the Ancient Greece for making sculptures....
1932-33	Seated Figure	lignum vitae Lignum vitae Lignum vitae is a trade wood, from trees of the genus Guaiacum, also called guayacan. This wood was once very important for uses requiring Strength of materials, weight, and hardness....
1933	Two Forms	alabaster Alabaster Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals: gypsum and calcite . The former is the alabaster of the present day; the latter is generally the alabaster of the ancients.... and limestone Limestone File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
1934	Mother and Child	Cumberland alabaster
1935	Three Forms	Serravezza marble
1936	Ball Plane and Hole	lignum vitae, mahogany Mahogany The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored wood, originally the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban 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 Bronze Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other chemical element such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon.... , 1961)
1946	Pelagos	- \| Tides	wood and paint
1946	1947	Blue and green (arthroplasty) 31 December 1947	oil and pencil on pressed paperboard Paperboard Paperboard is a paper-like material, usually over ten mils in thickness. Some types of paperboard are used in the construction of Corrugated fiberboard....
1949	Operation: Case for Discussion	oil and pencil on pressed paperboard Paperboard Paperboard is a paper-like material, usually over ten mils in thickness. Some types of paperboard are used in the construction of Corrugated fiberboard....
1951	Group I (Concourse) February 4 1951	Serravezza marble
1953	Hieroglyph	Ancaster stone Ancaster stone Ancaster stone is Middle Jurassic oolitic limestone, quarried around Ancaster, Lincolnshire, England. There are two forms, the rag and the freestone....
1954-55	Two Figures	teak Teak Teak , is a genus of tropics hardwood trees in the family Verbenaceae, native to the south and southeast of Asia, and is commonly found as a component of monsoon forest vegetation.... and paint
1955	Oval Sculpture (Delos)	scented guarea Guarea *Guarea* is a genus of evergreen trees in the mahogany family Meliaceae, native to tropical Africa and Central America and South America. They are large trees 20-45 m tall, with a trunk over 1 m trunk diameter, often buttressed at the base.... wood and paint
1955-56	Coré	bronze
1956	Orpheus (Maquette), Version II	- \| Stringed Figure (Curlew), Version II	brass and cotton string
1956	1958	Cantate Domino	- \| Sea Form (Porthmeor List of places in Cornwall This is a list of all the towns and villages of Cornwall, United Kingdom. This also includes places in the Isles of Scilly. See List of places in England for lists of settlements in other counties.... )	bronze
1960	1958	Figure for a Landscape	- \| Archaeon	bronze
1960	1962-63	Bronze Form (Patmos Patmos Patmos is a small Greece island in the Aegean Sea. One of the northernmost islands of the Dodecanese complex, it has a population of 2,984 and an area of 34.05 km .... )	bronze
1964	Rock Form (Porthcurno Porthcurno Porthcurno is a small village in the parish of St Levan located in a valley on the south coast of Cornwall, England, UK. It is approximately 9 miles to the west of the market town of Penzance and about 3 miles from Land's End, the most westerly point of the English mainland.... )	- \| Sea Form (Atlantic)	bronze
	bronze

1966	Figure in a Landscape	- \| Four-Square Walk Through	bronze
1966	1968	Two Figures	bronze and gold
1970	Family of Man	bronze
1971	The Aegean Suite	- \| Summer Dance	painted bronze
1971	1972	Minoan Head	- valign=top \| Assembly of Sea Forms	white marble mounted on stainless steel base
1973?	1972	Conversation with Magic Stones	bronze and silver

External links

online journal for art and artists in Cornwall