The art of the void with The Studiowith Barbara Hepworth ART HIST RY KIDS

WEEK 3 Art in Action Week This week is for taking action and going back to the things you haven’t explored yet this month! Take your time this week to finish up some of the fun things from the first two weeks. This could also be used as a dedicated art making week to work on any projects from this month’s guide that you haven’t had time for yet.

Or you can go a different route! Use this week to make connections to the art. Transform your art explorations into a full unit study. Learn about some interesting things related to Barbara Hepworth’s art and her life as you dive deeper to explore fascinating connections to arts + culture, geography, and science! The art comes alive when you learn all about the historical context.

You don’t have to do it all... these are just ideas! Choose one or two that really excite you and your kids, and leave the rest. “ I rarely draw what I see. I draw what I feel in my body. –Barbara Hepworth

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CONNECTING THE DOTS Geography

Where did Barbara Hepworth live? Barbara Hepworth was born in England, and she studied art in France and Italy. Find these countries on the map of Europe.

This video shows her home and studio in St. Ives where she lived and worked. Today it’s a sculpture garden that’s open to the public (managed by the Tate museum).

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CONNECTING THE DOTS British Culture

Hepworth was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1965.

This is an honor that’s bestowed by the British Royal Family to a woman for her out- standing contribution to her craft. It’s the female equivalent of knighthood for men, who then receive the honorific ‘Sir.’

Learn more here

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CONNECTING THE DOTS Science In 1944, Hepworth’s daughter was hospitalized, and Barbara became friends with the surgeon who treated her. From 1947-1949, Hepworth became increasingly fascinated by the medical profession and the orchestration of surgery. She watched from an observation area during many surgical procedures and she captured the events in a series of around 80 sketches made with pencil, ink, chalk, and paint. In a lecture, Hepworth observed the similarities between an artist and a surgeon ‘to restore and to maintain the beauty and grace of the human mind and body.’

Learn more here at the Tate, and on the Hepworth Wakefield website

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NOW IT’S YOUR TURN... Week 3 Project Abstract nature Barbara Hepworth was inspired by nature from a very young age. Throughout her art career, her sculptures were Take a look outside this week and informed by what she saw around her: lush foliage along a see if you can be inspired by rolling hillside, smooth stones in a rushing river, waves nature. You can find inspiration in crashing against the rough cliffs. something as small as an acorn or a ladybug or as large as a moun- She said, “A sculptor’s landscape embraces all things that tain range, the ocean, a bright blue grow and live and are articulate in principle: the shape of sky full of swirling clouds or a deep the buds already formed in autumn, the thrust and fury of blue sky full of twinkling stars. spring growth, the adjustment of trees and rocks and human beings to the fierceness of winter – all these belong Choose something to use as to the sculptor’s world.” the idea for your sculpture, and think about how you Hepworth also believed it was important for sculptures to can express the feeling of it be seen in their natural setting- outside where they could in the form of an abstract be touched and where the changing light would transform sculpture. them each and every day. She said: “I think sculpture grows in the open light and with the movement of the sun As you work, think about texture (is its aspect is always changing; and with space and the sky your sculpture smooth, rough, or a above, it can expand and breathe.” combination), color (will you leave it in the natural color of your sculpting “I always envisage ‘perfect settings’ for sculpture and they material, or will you paint it), sim- are, of course, mostly envisaged outside and related to the plicity (how much can you leave landscape. Whenever I drive through the countryside and out while still capturing the essence up the hills, I imagine forms placed in situations of natural of your subject), and scale (will your beauty and I wish more could be done about the perma- sculpture be tiny, medium, large)? nent siting of sculptures in strange and lonely places.”

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