Barbara Hepworth came into my world at a young age, but I
really didn’t know it. You see, I spent most of my spring, summer and autumn
holidays from school in St Ives, Cornwall as a youngster, and Hepworth
sculptures are dotted around this seaside town. Barbara Hepworth moved to St
Ives with her young family from London in 1939 to escape wartime London, and
more or less stayed living and working in this Cornish paradise for the rest of
her life.
Hepworth’s flowing forms appeal to me and draw me in. The
organic structure of a lot of her early work connects with me and my style. The
patina on her bronzes which she began creating a little later on just begs to
have a hand brushed alongside it. Her sculptures can draw you in for huge
sections of time, moving around the creation discovering it anew from each
angle. They genuinely absorb you, I suppose in an airy fairy way their organic
structure resonates with the human on a biological level.
I suppose I can’t not mention the part of her character
and belief that appeals to me also. Hepworth saw her work as interwoven with politics,
with her hope to ‘keep the good idea’. A little idealistic some may think,
maybe even simplistic, but a heart true goal to be aspired to, it definitely
is. Hepworth’s determination that ‘the dictates of work are as compelling for a
woman as for a man’, also resonate with me and I expect most women. She was
unashamed that she desired to create more than anything.
Barbara Hepworth had a very interesting life, and was
driven by her passion for sculpture, though also drew extremely
well. If you would like to learn more about this fiercely ambitious and
talented woman, who has truly inspired me you can visit the Barbara HepworthMuseum in St Ives, Cornwall and see her studio and a good number of her
works as well as learn more about her. Or, you can see 44 of her works on permanent
display at The Hepworth Wakefield.
If you can’t get to Cornwall or Wakefield, you can see many of her
works dotted around the UK, and further afield, here is a short list of the
ones I know about!
Single Form - Battersea Park, London
Two Forms (inverted circle) - Dulwich Park, London
Winged Figure – on the side of John Lewis, junction of Oxford
Street and Holles Street, London
Many sculptures displayed out of doors – Yorkshire SculpturePark (YSP), Wakefield, UK
Single Form – UN Plaza, UN headquarters, New York, USA
There is also an upcoming exhibition entitles; Barbara Hepworth:Within the Landscape, at the Abbot Hall
Art Gallery in Kendal from 5th July – 28th September 2014
Do you find Barbara Hepworth's body of work inspiring?
