Barbara Hepworth (1903-75)

One of the greatest British sculptors of the 20th century. She lived and worked in St Ives Cornwall for most of her life. She had a long friendship with Bernard and Janet Leach, especially Janet and was a seminal figure in the modernist work that came out of St Ives.
             These images are from the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, the town in which she was born and grew up. It has one of the  finest collections of her work in the country,

Morning Philpot, my favourite sculptor although born in Yorkshire i always associate her with St Ives, one of my favourite pieces is the 'crucifix homage to Mondrian' made from bronze and painted with Mondrian colours in part this i believe was made in an edition of three, one of which was in the Hepworth gallery, i am not sure where the others are now. We make the pilgrimage to St Ives most years to visit her garden. She was best friends with Janet Leach of course , i bet you could cut the air with a knife when those two got together with  a room full of smoke and whiskey fumes. (I just spotted the crucifix in the background of one of you pics.)

I understand that Janet and her spoke most night's by telephone from their beds while both drinking and smoking................ until the night that Barbara didn't put her fag out correctly.

Barbara Hepworth stone storage area at her Trewyn studios taken during my visit in 2019.

Trewyn studios 2019.

Here's is my original lithograph from the Aegean Suite published by the Curwen Studio in 1971.

There were nine prints in the suite and this is titled, Olympus.

I did buy this along with Delos from the same series, which I subsequently sold.

I did see the whole suite go through Bonhams some time ago for good money , along time ago we had one titled 'Two Forms' ,i now wished i hadn't sold it as it's probably the nearest i will ever get to buying a piece of Hepworth, i could always buy another i suppose (for double what i sold it for)

I had to think long and hard about selling the other one that I had.