This exhibition was the first international retrospective devoted to the work of Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975), one of the twentieth century’s leading sculptors. Hepworth was responsible, along with Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson, for the integration of British art in the 1930s into the European avant-garde. They were among the first British artists to understand fully and assimilate the revolutionary developments of the School of Paris from cubism, to geometric abstraction, to surrealism. In the years following the Second World War all three artists achieved international recognition. But, while Henry Moore’s sculptures had often been exhibited, and the Tate Gallery devoted a major retrospective exhibition to the work of Ben Nicholson in 1993, Barbara Hepworth’s artwork had received little critical attention since her death in 1975. This exhibition set out to redress the balance.
Barbara Hepworth: A Retrospective included approximately seventy-five carvings and bronzes and thirty drawings, which spanned nearly fifty years of her career. The works were selected by Dr. Penelope Curtis of the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, and by Dr. Alan G. Wilkinson of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Credits
The exhibition was organized by the Tate Gallery Liverpool, where it was on view from September 14 through December 4, 1994, and by the Art Gallery of Ontario, where it was displayed from May 18 through August 6, 1995.