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 AbstractionCréation 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. Reissued 1985
Phillips M & Stephens C, Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden, Tate Publishing 2002
Gale, M & Stephens C, Barbara Hepworth: Works in the Tate Collection, Tate
Publishing 1999
Hammacher, A. H, Barbara Hepworth, Thames and Hudson, 1968 Revised Edition, 1987
Thislewood, D (Ed), Barbara Hepworth Re-considered, Liverpool University Press &
Tate Liverpool, 1996
Barbara Hepworth Sculptures from the Estate, Wildenstein, 1996
Barbara Hepworth Stone Sculpture, Pace Wildenstein, 2001
Websites
http://www.barbarahepworth.org.uk/
www.tate.org.uk/stives/hepworth
www.stivestrust.demon.co.uk/archivesite St Ives Archive Study Centre website
The St Ives Library and Archive Study Centre holds a range of material about Barbara
Hepworth and other artists associated with St Ives.
St Ives Library
Gabriel Street
St Ives TR26 2LX
Tel: 01736 796408
e-mail: [email protected]