Published: 20/05/2024 By Graham Barton
Whilst on a visit to Cornwall to secure an auction instruction, our West Country auctioneer Graham Barton made the most of some spare time to visit the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives. Today, 20th May, marks the anniversary of her tragic death in a fire at her studio, but is also a timely opportunity to share her story, and highly recommend a visit. One of the few women artists to achieve international prominence, she worked in the Trewyn studios from 1949 until her death in 1975. It is well worth a look.
Barbara Hepworth came to live in Cornwall with her husband and their young family at the outbreak of war in 1939. As a contemporary of Henry Moore and Richard Bedford, she became a leading figure in the ‘new movement’ associated with ‘direct carving’, and moved towards abstraction and the piercing of the block which became such a hallmark.
Hepworth was especially active within, and on behalf of, the modernist artistic community in St Ives during its period of post-war international prominence. Her experience of the Cornish landscape was acknowledged in her choice of titles for her pieces – Galliard, Porthmeor, Trevalgan and Bryher.
With her long-standing friend, the potter Bernard Leach, she was awarded the Freedom of St Ives in 1968 as an acknowledgement of her importance to the town. Tragically, just seven years later she was killed in a terrible fire at her studio-home; she was 72.
If you are in the vicinity, a visit to the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden is a must. The garden was laid out by Hepworth with help from a friend, and many of the sculptures are in the positions in which the artist herself placed them. I am glad I took the detour and hope you do too.
You’ll find the article on P98 of Country Matters 2024 (below), or please do call into your nearest Symonds & Sampson office to collect your free copy.