A short presentation about the sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

1. BARBARA HEPWORTH
Barbara Hepworth was an English sculptor in the early years of the twentith century. With Henry Moore and Ben
Nicholson, she was one of the artists who worked with the European abstract sculpture.

2. She was born in Yorkshire in 1903 and studied art and sculpture at a time when it wasn’t usual for women to do it.
She studied art at Leeds School of Arts in 1920, where she became interested in the sculptural relation between
mass and negative space. Here she met Henry Moore and began a working relationship.
Henry Moore
Reclining woman

3. She also studied in the Sculpture School of the Royal College of Art in London and after that, she was granted a
scholarship to travel and study painting and sculpture in Siena, Florence, and Rome. In Italy she experimented
with direct carving techniques.
Mother and child, Hoptonwood Torso, Hoptonwood stone, 1928 , Tate
stone, 1927 , Art Gallery of (Barbara Hepworth Museum, St Ives)

4. The 1930s was a period of great discovery for Hepworth. She married with the sculptor Ben Nicholson,
together they travelled to Paris and visited artists including Pablo Picasso, George Braque, Piet Mondrian,
Jean Arp, and Constantin Brancusi.
Painting by George Braque
Relief by Ben Nicholson
Composition by Piet Mondrian
Biomorphical sculpture by Jean Arp The kiss of Brancusi

5. She developed an affinity for geometric and biomorphic abstraction and she and Nicholson joined the
Association Abstraction-Creation before leaving Paris in 1933.
There was a group of international artists who defended the abstract art with exhibitions, magazines,
lectures and conferences.
Other important artists in the group were Mondrian, Naum Gabo, and Laszlo Moholy Nagy.
Linear Construction in Space
by Naum Gabo
Light space modulator by Laszlo Moholy Nagy

6. Her sculpture explored the forms of human life and the geometrical forms. In 1931 Hepworth created an
alabaster work entitled Pierced Form, in which a hole was carved through the center of the sculpture.
Creating this abstract, negative space, Barbara Hepworth started one of the most important formal features
of her and Henry Moore's subsequent work. The pierced forms were a hallmark of her style, and she was
using the central void in her carved sculpture with softly curving shapes similar to the female form.
Nesting Stones, Serravezza marble,
1937 , Hiroshima Prefectural Art
Museum, Hiroshima
Pierced Form, Pink alabaster,
1932 , destroyed in war

7. She worked with a wide range of materials such bronze, marble, alabaster or wood, but she also
experimented with new elements such as sheet metal, wire or strings.
Sculpture with Colour (Oval Oval with Two forms ,Polished bronze,
Form), Painted wood and 1972
strings, 1943, Private collection

8. Barbara Hepworth received numerous public commissions and prizes during her career, she won the
Grand Prix in the 1959 Sao Paulo Biennial and in 1965 became a Dame Commander of the British
Empire
Oval Sculpture, Elm wood with colour, 1943 Piercing Form, Bronze and
strings, 1939

9. When she died in 1975 at the age of 72 years old, she was a prominent figure in the international art world
with work in all major museum collections.
Two forms, Black marble, 1937 Two forms , Painted wood, 1937

10. Quotation: “I felt the most intense pleasure in piercing the
stone in order to make an abstract form and space; quite a
different sensation from that doing it for the purpose of
realism”.
Specific vocabulary:
-Carving techniques:
técnicas de talla
-Carved sculpture: escultura
tallada
-Range of materials: gama
de materials
-Alabaster: alabastro
-Pierced form: forma
perforada
-Hallmark: sello, marca
-Void: vacío
-Sheet metal: lámina de
metal
-Wire: alambre
-Strings: cuerdas
-Shapes: formas
-Purpose: propósito
Wave, Plane wood with colour and strings, 1943–44 ,
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh