INSPIRED BY: Barbara Hepworth

 

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 5^th July – 28^th September 2014

Do you find Barbara Hepworth's body of work inspiring?