In normal times, a permanent collection of Barbara Hepworth’s work can be seen in the St Ives garden she so evidently loved. Although the garden remains on shutdown, a wide range of material is available online (see the links below). Her work fits wonderfully well into its Cornish setting, within striking distance of ancient standing stones such as Mên-an-Tol, Lanyon Quoit and the Kenidjack Common Holed Stones.
A woman in a man’s world, Barbara Hepworth observed she sometimes felt like a wounded gull being pecked to death by the healthy ones. I’m using her own words to accompany these pictures which may tempt you to learn more about her work and writing, and a creative life that ended in a tragic accident.
“People always want to carve a nose before they can make a piece of stone stand up.”
“A sculptor’s landscape embraces all things that grow and live and are articulate in principle: the shape of the buds already formed in autumn, the thrust and fury of spring growth, the adjustment of trees and rocks and human beings to the fierceness of winter – all these belong to the sculptor’s world.”
“Sculpture makes people act in a certain way; they move in a certain manner. Their gestures and their reaction to a sculpture are extremely expressive and this is the point – if the architect and the sculptor know how to seize upon it – where one might achieve a vital development in the architect’s as well as in the sculptor’s work in relation to human needs.”
“When I first pierced a shape, I thought it was a miracle.”
“All my early memories are of forms and shapes and textures. Moving through and over the West Riding landscape with my father in his car, the hills were sculptures; the roads defined the form. Above all, there was the sensation of moving physically over the contours of fullnesses and concavities, through hollows and over peaks – feeling, touching, seeing, through mind and hand and eye. This sensation has never left me.”
“My left hand is my thinking hand. The right is only a motor hand. This holds the hammer. The left hand, the thinking hand, must be relaxed, sensitive. The rhythms of thought pass through the fingers and grip of this hand into the stone. It is also a listening hand. It listens for basic weaknesses of flaws in the stone; for the possibility or imminence of fractures.”
“It’s never easy for a sculptor to have enough money, enough space and enough material.”
“I think sculpture grows in the open light and with the movement of the sun its aspect is always changing; and with space and the sky above, it can expand and breathe.”
“I always envisage ‘perfect settings’ for sculpture and they are, of course, mostly envisaged outside and related to the landscape. Whenever I drive through the countryside and up the hills, I imagine forms placed in situations of natural beauty and I wish more could be done about the permanent siting of sculptures in strange and lonely places.”
Address
All pictures were taken at the:
Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden
Barnoon Hill, Saint Ives, Cornwall TR26 1AD
For more about the artist, the sources of the quotations, and details of entry, check out the museum’s website.
For More About The Artwork
The Tate’s online resources offer insights into the history, materials, techniques and ideas behind Barbara Hepworth’s work and the conservation approach taken to preserve them. The bronzes shown here are:
Two Forms (Divided Circle) 1969
River Form 1965
Four-Square (Walk Through)
Sphere With Inner Form
Figure For Landscape
Susan Rushton 
Thank you so much for taking us here today – simply glorious, and thanks to the blue skies and birdsong coming through my window for a moment I thought I was actually walking through the garden with you listening to you sharing Barbara’s quotes
Ah – that’s lovely to hear. 🙂
I love that place!
There is something magical about it, especially under a blue sky with a glimpse of the sea as a backdrop.
Only one word will do: Wowsah! Thank you so much for introducing me to Barbara Hepworth’s work and words. How I wish I could walk among the sculpture. I had never heard of her and will be looking her up to get more info.
I enjoyed learning about her too. I wish we could have lingered longer in the garden – we went on to a garden with a big reputation that was a much less memorable experience.
Perhaps you can return some day?
I love these! Especially the astible through the hole
I’m glad you liked that one. It was fun to take.
Thanks for this delightful post. Hepworth was a powerful sculptor whose work also graces the UN headquarters in NY.
Thanks to the power of the internet I was able to follow your prompt and see it online.
Thanks for introducing us to this remarkable artist. Her work is so expressive and organic.
It’s an intimate and rare thing to be able to see sculpture sited in a real garden at the artist’s home.
What a great concept of mixing her words with her art and so well done.
She was articulate and expressive. Often an artist’s words do not add much to the experience of their artwork for me – they are not quite on the same level as it – but in her case, they do.
What a delightful post. It’s many years since I’ve visited Hepworth’s garden – on a dreary dull day – but this post has made her garden vivid for me again.
The Hepworth Wakefield is within striking distance for you in normal times. I haven’t been yet – have you? – but I’d love to go. They have won several awards and have a collection of her works in plaster. I am sure she would have been delighted if she’d known what her legacy would be, thanks to her trustees.
The Hepworth Museum is a wonderful place and well worth a visit. It’s got quite enough to occupy a whole day (good caff too!) so that might tempt you in the future? And of course it’s near the Yorkshire Sculpture Park too – though you definitely need a whole day for that,
It will very much tempt me – even before you mentioned the food. 🙂
Oh how I would love to visit! I love her work….but highly unlikely I ever will now. Thank you for posting.
It would be quite a long haul for you. I was impressed with The Tate’s online information – it’s a great way to share the scupltures and ideas behind them to a worldwide audience.
A lovely garden and one I try to visit at least a couple of times a year. When were these photos taken.? I don’t remember seeing the shed, nor all the tools in the studio. I must walk round with my eyes closed! Lovely post, I enjoyed reading her words. I am now going to have another look at my photos.
The pictures were taken in early July last year. The shed has a bed in it – there is perhaps a better term I’m not familiar with for that (we rarely have beds in our sheds up north). The studio picture was taken through the window.
I had another look at my folder and yes, there is a ‘shed’ but the doors were closed in May. The studio I think is closed? Next to the open work room? It’s no good I need another visit!
As you come out from the house into the garden it is on the right, near the blocks of stone. You can’t go inside but you can see everything through the window.