Abbot Hall’s summer exhibition focuses on one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975). Apart from Barbara Hepworth: A Retrospective at Tate Liverpool in 1994, this is the first significant exhibition of her work in the North West for over sixty years. It will contain some of Hepworth’s most iconic sculptures including Stringed Figure (Curlew), 1956, Torso III (Galatea), 1958, and Moon Form, 1968, alongside prints, photographs and ephemera detailing the artist’s life long relationship with the landscape. Lakeland Arts are working closely with the Hepworth Estate to secure key works as well as borrowing from national institutions for this important exhibition.

The landscape provided unending inspiration for Hepworth’s art. From the rough and rugged West Riding landscape experienced in her childhood to the idyllic views of St Ives in Cornwall, for Hepworth landscape was formative, multifaceted and constantly stimulating. She stated ‘I, the sculptor, am the landscape. I am the form and I am the hollow, the thrust and the contour.’ Hepworth’s commentary on the subject is extensive and this exhibition will draw on her words, her photographs and ephemera alongside her sculptures to give a unique insight into what she was both inspired by, and how she contributed to a perception of landscape.

Born in Wakefield in 1903, Hepworth trained as a sculptor at Leeds School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Alongside Henry Moore, Hepworth became a leading figure in the ‘new movement’ associated with direct carving. Hepworth's first retrospective show was held at Temple Newsam, Leeds in 1943, and she represented Britain at the 25th Venice Biennale in 1950. During the 1950s she became increasingly established, receiving several major commissions for public sculpture, including a commission for the Festival of Britain in 1951. Hepworth was an active member of the St Ives School of artists which included her husband, Ben Nicholson as well as Naum Gabo, Peter Lanyon and Patrick Heron. Her international standing was confirmed when she was awarded the Grand Prize at the 1959 São Paolo Bienal

http://www.abbothall.org.uk/

Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Landscape

    Landscape is one of the principle genres of Western art. In early paintings the landscape was a backdrop for the composition, but in the late 17th Century the appreciation of nature for its own sake began with the French and Dutch painters (from whom the term derived). Their treatment of the landscape differed: the French tried to evoke the classical landscape of ancient Greece and Rome in a highly stylised and artificial manner; the Dutch tried to paint the surrounding fields, woods and plains in a more realistic way. As a genre, landscape grew increasing popular, and by the 19th Century had moved away from a classical rendition to a more realistic view of the natural world. Two of the greatest British landscape artists of that time were John Constable and JMW Turner, whose works can be seen in the Tate collection (www.tate.org.uk). There can be no doubt that the evolution of landscape painting played a decisive role in the development of Modernism, culminating in the work of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists . Since then its demise has often been predicted and with the rise of abstraction, landscape painting was thought to have degenerated into an amateur pursuit. However, landscape persisted in some form into high abstraction, and has been a recurrent a theme in most of the significant tendencies of the 20th Century. Now manifest in many media, landscape no longer addresses solely the depiction of topography, but encompasses issues of social, environmental and political concern.

  • Sculpture

    A three-dimensional work of art. Such works may be carved, modelled, constructed, or cast. Sculptures can also be described as assemblage, in the round, relief, and made in a huge variety of media. Contemporary practice also includes live elements, as in Gilbert & George 'Living Sculpture' as well as broadcast work, radio or sound sculpture.