Barbara Hepworth Art and Life review – a blockbuster of diminishing returns
over 4 years in The guardian
Hepworth WakefieldIn the biggest UK show of the artist’s work since her death in 1975, Hepworth’s sculptures are forced to compete with each other – and yet their creator’s sheer commitment shines through
In the mid-1950s, Barbara Hepworth returned to bronze after a break of 30 years. Casting in metal not only meant that several editions of the same work could be made and sold; it was more durable than her carvings, and thus better suited, as she put it, to the “travelling circus” of the contemporary art world. But the change brought with it a shift in style, too: a salty new freedom. The first of these bronzes, Curved Form (Trevalgan) (1956), the idea for which Hepworth conceived while gazing at the Atlantic from a hill between St Ives and Zennor, has a sense of movement her work had hitherto lacked. Its arms, lithe yet muscular, bring to mind the wings of some huge, greenish sea bird. Such a heavy thing – and yet it might take off at any moment.
Those sculptures that are carved from exotic hardwoods and polished to a shine cry out to be stroked Continue reading...
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