Barbara Hepworth Barbara Hepworth Biography
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Yorkshire Sculpture Park RESOURCE FILE Barbara Hepworth Barbara Hepworth biography Dame Barbara Hepworth, was born in Wakefield in 1903, became one of the twentieth century's most eminent international sculptors, shaped by her early years in Yorkshire, which she says 'disciplined me to the life of form and sculpture'. She achieved worldwide success and his best known for creating beautiful, flowing and rhythmic sculptures in wood, marble or bronze, often influenced for example by the organic shapes and contours of nature. Her work can be found all over the world: The Family of Man (Nine Figures on a Hill), 1970, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield; Winged Figure, 1963, John Lewis’ Oxford Street, London, UK and Single Form, 1962-3, United Nations Plaza, New York, USA. Born and brought up in Yorkshire, Barbara attended Leeds School of Art at the age of 17 and went on to study sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London. In 1924 she visited Italy as the result of a West Riding Travelling Scholarship, where she first learned the technique of stone carving. Her early works were based on the figure, animals and birds. While in Italy she married the sculptor John Skeaping. They returned to London in 1926 where they set up a studio. Her first son, Paul Skeaping was born in 1929. From 1930 Barbara’s work became more abstract as she explored space and shape, often piercing right through the form. In 1931 she met the painter Ben Nicholson who became her second husband. Nicholson and Hepworth were involved in developing an abstract art based on pure simplified forms and during the 1930s they were associated with many of the leading European avant-garde artists of the day. In 1934 Hepworth gave birth to triplets, Simon, Rachel and Sarah Hepworth Nicholson. In 1939 Hepworth moved to St Ives, Cornwall, where she became an influential member of the artistic community. In 1949 Barbara bought Trewyn Studio in St Ives where she lived and worked for the rest of her life. In the 1950s she began working in bronze, which was often on a larger scale. She received a number of important public commissions and her work was exhibited worldwide. She was awarded many honours including a DBE from the Queen. Barbara died in a fire at her studio in 1975. She was 72 years old. The following year the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden was opened at Trewyn. The Hepworth Wakefield opens on 21 May 2011. 1903 Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, UK, attends Wakefield Girls' High School 1920 Scholarship to the Leeds School of Art, Leeds, UK 1921 Scholarship to the Royal College of Art, London to study sculpture 1924 West Riding Travel Scholarship to Italy 1925 Marries English sculptor and painter John Skeaping in Florence, lives and works at the British School in Rome First learns to carve marble from the master-carver Giovanni Ardini 1926 Returns to England, lives in St Johns Wood, London, UK 1927 Studio exhibition of carvings with John Skeaping 1928 Moves to Mall Studios in Hampstead, London, UK, first solo exhibition at the Beaux Art Gallery, London, UK 1929 Birth of son, Paul Skeaping 1930 Exhibition with Skeaping at Arthur Tooth & Sons' Galleries, London, UK 1931 Carves her first pierced sculpture, Pierced Form (1931), in alabaster, which was destroyed during First World War 1932 Exhibits with the Seven and Five Society; Hepworth is a member until the group is dissolved in 1935 1933 Visits Paris and St Rémy de Provence with painter Ben Nicholson, Meets Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Constantin Brancusi, Piet Mondrian, Jean Hélion and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, invited to become a member of the avant-garde Abstraction- Création group. Hepworth and Skeaping divorced 1934 Exhibition of the group Unit One of which both Hepworth and Nicholson are members, at the Mayor Gallery, London Birth of triplets, Simon, Rachel and Sarah Hepworth Nicholson 1935 Meets Mondrian and Naum Gabo in Paris 1936 Meets Jean Miró while on holiday in Dieppe. Group exhibition Abstract & Concrete, Oxford, including the work of Mondrian, Kandinsky, Arp, Giacometti, Miró, Calder, Moholy-Nagy, Hélion, Nicholson, Moore and Gabo The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquires its first Hepworth, Discs in Echelon (1935) 1937 Publication of Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art 1938 Exhibits in Abstract Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Marries Ben Nicholson 1939 Group exhibitions Living Art in England at the London Gallery, UK and Abstract and Concrete Art at Guggenheim Jeune, London, UK Moves to St Ives, Cornwall 1940 Studio damaged by bombs, destroying many early works 1942 Exhibits in New Movements in Art at the London Museum, UK 1943 First retrospective exhibition held at Temple Newsam, Leeds Kathleen Raine's Stone and Flower: Poems 1935–43 published featuring drawings by Hepworth 1944 Exhibition at Wakefield City Art Gallery, UK 1946 First book published on her work, Barbara Hepworth: Sculptress by Faber and Faber 1947 Begins to draw operations in hospitals Makes maquettes for four sculptures on the new Waterloo Bridge in London, in a limited competition organised by the London County Council (no commissions were given) Exhibits at the second Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris, France 1948 Exhibits at first Open Air Exhibition of Sculpture in Battersea Park, London, UK 1949 Buys Trewyn Studio in St Ives, Cornwall, UK and is founder member of Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall 1950 Represents Britain at the Venice Biennale 1951 Two works commissioned for the Festival of Britain; Contrapuntal Forms and Turning Forms, shown on London's South Bank, London, UK Retrospective at Wakefield City Art Gallery, UK Hepworth and Nicholson divorce 1952 Publication of major monograph Barbara Hepworth: Carvings and Drawings 1953 Death of her son Paul, in a RAF plane crash over Thailand Film Figures in a Landscape: Cornwall and the Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth produced by Dudley Shaw Ashton for the British Film Institute 1954 Major exhibition of her work at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK 1955 Michael Tippett's opera The Midsummer Marriage at the Royal Opera House, features sets and costumes by Hepworth 1956 First solo exhibition at Gimpel Fils in London, UK Begins to work in sheet metal and bronze 1958 Created C.B.E in New Year’s Honours List 1959 Exhibition organised by the British Council opens at the fifth São Paulo Biennial in September: Hepworth is awarded the major prize 1961 Barbara Hepworth: Life and Work published BBC television film Barbara Hepworth directed by John Read Exhibits work made from 1952 – 1962 at Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK 1963 Foreign Minister's Award at the 7th Tokyo Biennale Winged Figure is unveiled on the John Lewis department store, Oxford Street, London, UK 1964 Single Form at the United Nations Secretariat in New York, USA is unveiled 1965 Made Dame of the British Empire and is the first female trustee of the Tate Gallery 1966 Barbara Hepworth: Drawings from a Sculptor's Landscape is published 1968 Major retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London, UK Awarded Freedom of the Borough of St Ives Made a Bard of Cornwall in a ceremony at St Just-in-Penwith 1970 Barbara Hepworth: A Pictorial Autobiography published The Family of Man, a major nine-part bronze, is completed 1972 The Family of Man exhibited at Marlborough Fine Art, London, UK 1973 Elected Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 1975 Dies in an accidental fire at Trewyn Studio aged 72 1976 Opening of Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden at Trewyn, St Ives 1980 Barbara Hepworth exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Family of Man remain on long term loan 2003 Major centenary exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park 2011 The Hepworth Wakefield opens Barbara Hepworth at Yorkshire Sculpture Park 1980 Major exhibition, publication produced The Family of Man 1970, bronze; Dual Form 1965, bronze; Spring 1966, bronze; and Squares with Two Circles 1963, bronze remain on long term loan 1982 Squares with Two Circles 1963, bronze enters YSP loan collection from Tate 1983 International Sculpture Symposium held at YSP in association with International Sculpture Center, USA, and features Hepworth on publicity literature By 1984 YSP showing; Biolith 1948-49, blue limestone Squares with Two circles 1963, bronze Dual Form 1965, bronze Spring 1966, bronze and strings Summer Dance 1971-72, bronze The Family of Man 1970, bronze 1985 Re-siting of The Family of Man (26, 27 February) and formal opening (1 March) 1988 The Family of Man (1970) is shown in ‘End Games’ outside the South Bank Centre 1996 Dual Form loaned from YSP to Djanogly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham 1997-99 Curved Reclining Form (Rosewall) 1960-62, Nebrasina stone, on loan to YSP from Post Office Counters 1998-99 British Sculpture exhibition at Schlosspark Ambras, Innsbruck, Austria organised by YSP includes Ascending Form (Gloria) 1958, bronze, and Summer Dance 1972 1999 Den Haag Sculpture 1999 exhibition organised in collaboration with YSP and others includes Sea Form (Atlantic) 1964, bronze 2003 Barbara Hepworth Centenary exhibition at YSP Composer in Residence; Nigel Morgan. Publication produced with Sophie Bowness: Barbara Hepworth and the Yorkshire Landscape, An Anthology of her Writings and Recollections, and YSP contributes to Tate publication; Barbara Hepworth Centenary, Edited by Chris Stevens 2003 The Art of Barbara Hepworth film by Illuminations includes footage filmed at YSP 2003 Peter Murray and Sir Alan Bowness in Conversation organised by Friends of Wakefield Art Gallery. 2003-05 Curved Reclining Form (Rosewall) again on loan at YSP 2011 Barbara Hepworth and Landscape exhibition YSP Centre Upper Space 2011 Joint symposium on Hepworth and Moore (3-5 June) in collaboration with The Hepworth Wakefield, The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery and The Arts Council Collection Further resources and reading Barbara Hepworth: Centenary, Exhibition catalogue, Tate St Ives, 2003 Curtis, P, Barbara Hepworth, Tate St Ives Series, Tate Gallery, 1998 Curtis, P & Wilkinson, A, Barbara Hepworth: a retrospective, Liverpool University Press & Tate Gallery, 1994 Barbara Hepworth, A Pictorial Biography, Tate Publishing 1970.