Barbara Hepworth, Contrapuntal Forms. 1951Blue limestone (County Galway, Eire), 305x122x915 cmGlebelands housing areaGrade II listed by English Heritage in 1998 Also for the Festival of Britain she produced a plaster sculpture sited in the entrance to the Riverside Restaurant. See under Exhibitions: Festival of Britain 1951 Commissioned by the Arts Council for the Festival of Britain South Bank. Acquired by the Development Corporation when the art works were distributed at the end of the Festival. The uptake for these works was disappointing but Harlow Development Corporation took this and three murals in October 51. The sculpture stood high on a plinth between the Dome of Discovery and the Transport Pavilion. It was hand carved by Hepworth. She was insistent that this work have a civic setting but agreed to it being temporarily placed in a completed environment. The Trust attempted to move the work from the Glebelands but returned it in 2014 after residents objected. The surrounding area was re landscaped with grass and a low barrier. The novel concept of having sculpture in an urban landscape was taken up with the formation of Harlow Art Trust and the subsequent acquisition of the Collection.
1903 – 1975 “I had to do some work every day, even at midnight, because either you‘re a professional or you’re not.” Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth DBEBorn Wakefield, Yorkshire in 1903 died 1975 in St Ives (in house fire age 72).Married John Skeaping 1925-33 then Ben Nicholson 1938-51.Attended Leeds School of Art alongside Henry Moore and both went on to the Royal College of Art. Both, for the time unusual, practised direct carving.During her stay in Italy 1924-6 she married Skeaping, later remarrying Ben Nicholson. She and Nicholson made European travels where they met many abstractionists including Braque, Mondrian, and visited the studios of Picasso, Brancusi and Jan and Sophie Arp, which is reflected in their own modernist work.They moved to St Ives at the outbreak of war and it became their permanent family home. Her studio and sculpture garden is now a popular visitor centre.Her first public commission was in 1949 for the Festival of Britain. She took on assistants Denis Mitchell, John Wells, and the painter Terry Frost, to carve the Contrapuntal Forms. She was inspired by the composer Rainier, who introduced her to the contrapuntal music of the English Renaissance with the fantasia of Orlando Gibbons.Hepworth actively […]
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