Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth DBE b. January 10, 1903 Hepworth was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. She was one of the few women artists to achieve international prominence. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St. Ives during the Second World War. Her early work was highly interested in abstraction and art movements on the continent. In 1933, Hepworth travelled to France with Ben Nicholson, where they visited the studios of Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, and Constantin Brâncuşi. Hepworth later became involved with the Paris-based art movement, Abstraction-Création. In 1933, Hepworth co-founded the Unit One art movement with the artists Paul Nash and Ben Nicholson, critic Herbert Read, and the architect Wells Coates. The movement sought to unite Surrealism and abstraction in British art. Hepworth also helped raise awareness of continental artists amongst the British public. In 1937 she designed the layout for Circle: An International Survey of Constructivist Art, a 300-page book that surveyed Constructivist artists and that was published in London and edited by Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo, and Leslie Martin. Hepworth married the painter Ben Nicholson on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office, following his divorce from his wife Winifred. The couple had triplets in 1934, Rachel, Sarah, and Simon. Rachel and Simon also became artists. The couple would divorce in 1951. Her eldest son, Paul, was killed on 13 February 1953 in a plane crash while serving with the Royal Air Force in Thailand. A memorial to him, Madonna and Child, is in the parish church of St. Ives. Exhausted in part from her sons death, Hepworth travelled to Greece with her good friend Margaret Gardiner in August 1954. They visited Athens, Delphi, and many of the Aegean Islands. When Hepworth returned to St.Ives from Greece in August 1954, she found that Gardiner had sent her a large shipment of Nigerian Guarea hardwood. Although she received only a single tree trunk, Hepworth noted that the shipment from Nigeria to the Tilbury docks came in at 17 tons.[15] Between 1954-1956 Hepworth sculpted six pieces out of Guarea wood, many of which were inspired by her trip to Greece, such as Corinthos (1954) and Curved Form (Delphi) (1955). Hepworth also experimented with lithography in her late career. She produced two lithographic suites with the Curwen Gallery and its director Stanley Jones, one in 1969 and one in 1971. The latter was entitled The Aegean Suite (1971) and was inspired by Hepworths trip to Greece in 1954 with Margaret Gardiner. The artist also produced a set of lithographs entitled Opposing Forms (1970) with Marlborough Fine Art in London. Barbara Hepworth died in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studios on 20 May 1975 at the age of 72.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 13:53:02 +0000
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