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Learn about the life and work of Barbara Hepworth, an English artist and sculptor who pioneered modernism and abstract art. Explore her biography, art movements, sculptures, and legacy.
Learn about the life and work of Dame Barbara Hepworth, a leading British sculptor of the 20th century. Explore her abstract forms, her collaborations with other artists, and her public commissions around the world.
Barbara Hepworth (born January 10, 1903, Wakefield, Yorkshire, England—died May 20, 1975, St. Ives, Cornwall) was a sculptor whose works were among the earliest abstract sculptures produced in England.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Learn about the life and work of Barbara Hepworth, one of the most influential British sculptors of the 20th century. Find out about her exhibitions, publications, studio, archive and legacy.
- Childhood and Education
- Early Career
- Mature Period
- Late Period
- The Legacy of Barbara Hepworth
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Hepworth was the eldest child of Gertrude and Herbert Hepworth, a civil engineer. She would frequently accompany her father on car trips round the Yorkshire countryside, and she spent summer holidays at Robin Hood's Bay, also in Yorkshire. This early connection with rural settings was to influence much of her work. After attending the Wakefield Gir...
She was awarded a West Riding Scholarship in 1924, which allowed her to spend a year traveling abroad. She spent several months in Florence, Italy, where she studied Romanesque architecture and early Italian Renaissance art. She also traveled to Rome and Siena. In Florence's Palazzo Vecchio in May 1925 she married Skeaping, who specialized in sculp...
In 1931, Hepworth met abstract painter Ben Nicholsonand began a relationship. Hepworth separated from her husband in the same year. The breakdown of their marriage, and the start of Hepworth's relationship with Nicholson (who was also married), was marked by a working holiday to the Norfolk coast organized by Hepworth and Henry Moore. The divorce f...
Though she had often felt in Moore's shadow in terms of fame and recognition, Hepworth's public visibility increased when her work was shown at the Venice Biennale in 1950 and as part of the Festival of Britain in 1951. Hepworth's marriage to Nicholson dissolved in the same year, although he remained in St Ives until 1958. Her work was considerably...
Along with her friend Henry Moore, Hepworth was fundamental in establishing a characteristic vocabulary of modern British sculpture. Through a shared interest in the ideal of "truth to materials", or to a sculptural form dictated in part by the inherent properties of the media used, Hepworth and Moore created an approach focused on process and mate...
Learn about Barbara Hepworth, a British sculptor who pioneered abstract and biomorphic forms, and explored the relationship between sculpture and space. Discover her influential works, such as Pierced Form, Mother and Child, and Sculpture with White Forms.
- British
- January 10, 1903
- Wakefield, Yorkshire, UK
- May 20, 1975
Sep 29, 2023 · Learn about the life and work of British artist Barbara Hepworth, who created sensuous, abstract forms inspired by nature and human anatomy. Discover her techniques, materials, themes and legacy through examples of her sculptures sold at Christies.
Born in Wakefield to a middle-class family, Barbara Hepworth was the first born to Gerda and Herbert Hepworth. As a young girl, Barbara accompanied her father, a County Surveyor, on trips...
