Barbara Hepworth

ABOUT

Barbara Hepworth was a British sculptor, who was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire in 1903. She was a leading figure in the international art scene throughout a career spanning five decades.

Barbara Hepworth initiated a radical new approach to European abstract sculpture in the 1930s. Hepworth’s signature work consists of smoothly polished biomorphic shapes carved directly from stone, often punctuated by an ovoid cavity. This piercing was a major contribution to the sculptural vocabulary at the time and allowed a new understanding of possibilities in modern sculpture. Hepworth recalled, “When I first pierced a shape, I thought it was a miracle. A new vision was opened.”