Hepworth in Yorkshire will focus on Hepworth's early years growing up in Wakefield, displaying archival material and work relating to her family and childhood.
In 2015, The Hepworth Wakefield will present a duo of exhibitions to coincide with the major Barbara Hepworth retrospective at Tate Britain. The shows will look at Hepworth’s early and later years respectively, providing context to the emergence and legacy of one of the UK’s most famous artists.
Hepworth in Yorkshire will focus on Hepworth’s early years growing up in Wakefield, displaying archival material and work relating to her family and childhood. These will be accompanied by early drawings, paintings and sculpture that show Hepworth’s natural gifts in these areas. Newspaper articles and photography document her early successes and engagement with an academic figurative style that she would soon depart from to find her own artistic voice. Photographic images Hepworth took or commissioned of Yorkshire will be presented alongside these early works, reflecting her assertion that the experience of growing up in this area was hugely influential.
The centrepiece of this display will be a portrait of Hepworth painted when she was a teenager by noted artist Ethel Walker, who lived part-time in Robin Hood’s Bay. This work has been generously gifted to The Hepworth Wakefield from a private collection, returning Hepworth to her birthplace.
Image: Ethel Walker, Barbara Hepworth as a teenager, c.1920, oil on canvas (detail). The Hepworth Wakefield (Wakefield Council Permanent Art Collection). The Estate of Dame Ethel Walker/Bridgeman Images.
Press Contact:
Naomi Roberts
Media Officer
+44 (0)1924 247392
naomiroberts@hepworthwakefield.org
Opening: Saturady 16 May 2015
The Hepworth Wakefield
Gallery Walk, Wakefield