Sculptor Hepworth’s work returns to her native Yorkshire

Named after sculptor Barbara Hepworth, one of Britain’s most talented and best loved artists, the gallery is a permanent tribute to her life and work in her home city of Wakefield. Central to the gallery’s exhibits are over forty works donated by her family through the Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for works of art.

The Hepworth Family Gift comprises a unique collection of prototypes and models in plaster, aluminium and wood. Most are the original plasters on which Hepworth worked and which provide visitors with an exceptional insight into the artist’s working methods and creativity. Also included are examples of Hepworth’s drawings, lithographs and screenprints.

Perhaps most striking of all, the items included in the gift is Hepworth’s full-scale working model of Winged Figure. Commissioned by the John Lewis Partnership, the final version can be seen high up on the edifice of retailer’s flagship store at Oxford Street in London and was installed in 1963. Standing at over six metres tall, the prototype makes an extremely impressive exhibit and gives visitors the opportunity to see at first hand her immense skill and craftsmanship.

The majority of works forming the Hepworth Family Gift have returned to the artist’s native Yorkshire from St Ives in Cornwall where she spent a great deal of her working life until her death in 1975. The family felt that the Yorkshire landscape had a profound and lasting impact on Barbara Hepworth and that it was appropriate for her work to be viewed in the context in which she grew up.

Through its Gifts and Bequests programme the Art Fund brings works of art currently in private hands into the public domain. On gifting the works, Dr Sophie Bowness, granddaughter of Barbara Hepworth said: “We are very pleased to be making this gift through the Art Fund, to secure its future and ensure that it will be accessible to the public in perpetuity. It will greatly enhance our understanding of her working methods.”

The gallery, designed by Sir David Chipperfield, shows the artist’s sculpture alongside contemporaries including Wakefield-raised Henry Moore, and her two artist husbands John Skeaping and Ben Nicholson.

The gallery has embarked on an ambitious programme of exhibitions beginning with the work of Irish artist Eva Rothschild whose large sculptures in materials such a rubber and leather can be seen at the gallery until October. A film about the Hepworth Family Gift specially commissioned by the Art Fund and The Hepworth Wakefield can be seen at www.artfund.org/the-hepworth-wakefield

Yorkshire Post Reader Offer: Buy a National Art Pass and you’ll receive free entry to 200 art galleries, museums and historic houses all over the UK and 50% off tickets to major exhibitions. Call 0844 415 4100 quoting MO1102 or visit www.artfund.org/nationalartpass