This small, 95 page monograph published by the Tate is a fine introduction to the work of one of the 20th C’s great artists, Barbara Hepworth.

Working in the misogynistic art world of the mid-20th C, raising four children including triplets, moving from war torn London to Cornwall, and supporting her two artist husbands, Hepworth managed to ultimately become a dominant force in both British and international sculpture.  Her work is prominently displayed in the best museums in the world and graces public spaces from New York City (outside the UN Building as a tribute to her friend Dag Hammarskjold) to the Oxford Street wall of London’s John Lewis department store.  The installation of her Family of Man is one of the highlights of the Yorkshire Sculpture Garden which we visited last year.

We have visited the Hepworth-Wakefiled museum in her home town of Wakefield, 3 hours north of London, as well as the Hepworth Museum and Garden in St. Ives, a small artist/fishing village at the southwestern tip of England in Cornwall.  We’ve also had the treat of being the only visitors at a gallery near here in Notting Hill to view a precious exhibit of about twelve of her smaller works of sculpture as well as several drawings.

Her work is strikingly beautiful and powerful.  Working in wood, stone, and bronze, she introduced two novel elements into constructivist sculpture, ‘piercing’ in which a ‘hole’ that traverses the sculpture is a major element and the addition of strings which are primarily decorative but also often hold together the sculpture’s elements in a haunting balance of tension and natural shape.  She worked from the small hand-held size to the monumental, and her creativity and energy were evident in all the works we experienced.

After WWII she settled in Cornwall’s St. Ives where she gradually accumulated enough land for a home, studio, garden, and storage facility.  She lived there for the last 25 years of  her life, dying in a tragic fire at the age of 72 in 1975.

Working in the past in the shadow of her famus painter husband, Ben Nicolson or her art school classmate, Henry Moore, Hepworth has clearly emerged as a world class artist who deserves the attention she is now getting. If you don’t know her, this is a fine book to start with, Its photographic reproductions of her work are excellent, and the text is briskly informative. Find her work somewhere near you and join the group of her enthusiastic admirers.