MyCornwall Magazine - Dec/Jan

Barbara Hepworth
at her Trewyn Studio, 1957
EXHIBITION FOCUS
HEPWORTH: ART AND LIFE
A landmark exhibition has opened at Tate St Ives celebrating the work and
influence of the iconic British artist Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975).
Encompassing almost 50 sculptures, as
well as rarely seen paintings, drawings,
prints and designs, Barbara Hepworth: Art
& Life will focus the special significance of
St Ives on her work.
The show was originally staged at The
Hepworth Wakefield, which collaborated
with Tate St Ives to reimagine it for the
Cornish context in which Hepworth lived
and worked. It will emphasise how the
area’s rugged landscape and close-knit
artistic community became important
sources of inspiration.
Hepworth was born in Wakefield in
1903, and relocated to St Ives 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, buying the Palais de Danse
opposite in 1961 for a larger working
space. Hepworth died in 1975 following
an accidental fire at Trewyn.
Stringed Figure (Curlew)
v2, 1956 C. Tate
Visitors to the exhibition will follow
Hepworth’s early artistic journey from her
initial studies at Leeds School of Art in
1920–21 to her travels across Europe, and
her subsequent life in London in the 1930s,
where she started a family while continuing
to create work, moving away from overtly
figurative work towards abstraction.
During her early years in St Ives, she
quickly embraced the artistic community
and was a founder member of the Penwith
Society of Arts in 1949, with Nicholson and
artists including Peter Lanyon and Bernard
Leach. The landscapes of West Cornwall
captivated her and generated a period
of extraordinary creativity which saw her
adopt bronze as a principal medium.
The show will explore Hepworth’s forays
into stage design and her interest in the
movement of the body, with a particular
focus on the creation of her monumental
Single Form for the United Nations
headquarters in New York.
The exhibition also explores her wider
interests: music, dance, science, politics,
religion and her lesser-known fascination
with space and spirituality, including a visit
to Goonhilly Earth Station on the Lizard.
This exhibition has already been on
show at the Hepworth Wakefield gallery,
near the artist’s birthplace, and now
celebrates her extraordinary life and
achievements in the place she considered
her ‘spiritual home’. l
Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life is at Tate
St Ives until May 1, 2023. Open Tuesday
to Sunday 10am to 4.20pm until March 1,
then daily, 10am to 5.20pm.
Cornwall residents can get unlimited yearround
entry to Tate St Ives and the Barbara
Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden
for just £5, by presenting proof of address.
Find out more at tate.org.uk/stives
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