Today, on a whim, we ventured across North Lincolnshire and into Yorkshire to Wakefield to visit Hepworth Gallery. We weren’t disappointed! Outside, the pigmented concrete façade appears to rise majestically out of the banks of the river Calder. The gallery has had a role in helping to regenerate Wakefield and to ensure Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture has a permanent home in the place of her birth.
The gallery is home to a wonderful collection of Hepworth’s full-scale models in plaster and aluminium – prototypes that were later cast in bronze. Quite simply, the gallery is a delight – inside, a series of beautifully-proportioned spaces that do justice to the range of scale and materials used in Hepworth’s sculptures. For me, the whole presentation of her work and that of her contemporaries, showed the sheer quality and dynamism of the post-war art scene in Britain. The excellent information panels showed how the work of Hepworth, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Paul Nash, Francis Bacon, William Scott (curently in a feature exhibition) and many others, positioned Britain as a powerhouse of post-war innovation in two and three-dimensional art.
If you haven’t visited the Hepworth, go soon, as it’s well worth a visit. Current exhibitions include large-scale paintings by William Scott and light installations by Haroon Mirza.
Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Barbara Hepworth’s work and life, why not visit:
http://www.hepworthwakefield.org and https://www.artsy.net/artist/barbara-hepworth
