Hepworth in Colour

Barbara Hepworth (1903 –1975) is of one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century, best known for her abstract sculptural forms inspired by nature and the rugged seaside landscapes of Cornwall, where she lived and worked. Accompanying a major new exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, London, this ambitious catalogue will be the first to explore a less familiar aspect of her work, the artist’s lifelong fascination with colour, which she used in highly original and unexpected ways. The exhibition and accompanying book will unite for the first time her early innovative sculptures with colour of the 1940s, exploring them alongside the most important drawings from that decade, and will include major examples of her work with colour from the 1950s and 1960s. Discussing her pioneering use of colour in sculpture with her son-in-law, the art historian Alan Bowness, Hepworth stated “In a way my colour has been accepted, but never understood”.  This focused, research-driven volume will be comprised of around 20 sculptures and 30 exceptional drawings, showing sculpture in dialogue with her painted and graphic works. At the heart of the thesis is an extraordinary group of wood and stone carvings created in the 1940s, with vivid blues and yellows painted into hollows and onto curves. Hepworth’s interest in colour continued across her career into the 1950s and 1960s, with her painterly bronze surfaces and surprising use of coloured marbles that expand the role of colour in sculpture and reflecting a more expressive painting and drawing practice. Hepworth in Colour provides an exciting and unique opportunity to discover the vital and expressive role of colour in Hepworth’s sculpture, offering a fresh way of understanding one of the most remarkable artists of the 20th century.