Barbara Hepworth Museum
{{Short description|Sculpture museum in Cornwall, England}}
{{Primary sources|date=July 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2015}}
File:Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden, St Ives - geograph.org.uk - 11244.jpg at the Barbara Hepworth Museum, with Two Forms (Divided Circle) behind]]
The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives, Cornwall preserves the 20th-century sculptor Barbara Hepworth's studio and garden much as they were when she lived and worked there. She purchased the site in 1949 and lived and worked there for 26 years until her death in a fire on the premises in 1975.
History
The studio, known as Trewyn Studio, was purchased by Barbara Hepworth in September 1949. Princess Anne visited Hepworth at her studio during her visit to St Ives in 1972.{{cite news |title=Ignoring the Rain the Princess Saves St. Ives' Big Day |work=St Ives Times & Echo |issue=3097 |date=12 May 1972 |page=4 |quote=But defying the recurring showers, Princess Anne decided to walk - from the Guildhall to Dame Barbara Hepworth's studio in Barnoon, from Barnoon to the lifeboat slipway, and from the slipway to Porthmeor Beach.}}
Her living room is furnished as she left it, while the workshop remains full of her tools and equipment, materials, and part-worked pieces. The museum was opened by her family in 1976, after Barbara had left instructions to this effect in her will. It is the largest collection of her works that are on permanent display.{{cite web |url=http://barbarahepworth.org.uk/st-ives/ |title=Barbara Hepworth: St Ives |publisher=Hepworth Estate |accessdate=11 August 2016}}
The sculptures featured at the museum (mainly in the secluded garden) were some of her favourites. Her workshop also includes a queue of uncut stones that one visitor has described as "still waiting for their moment in the shadow of her workshop". In 1950 she acquired two huge blocks of Galway limestone which she carved into her Festival of Britain commission, the Contrapuntal Forms. A set of photographs in the museum shows the progress of this project. Wood carving was done in an upstairs room, and the bronze statues she started casting in 1956 had their origins in the plaster prototypes she worked on in the upper of the two outside studios.
She was helped in the creation of the garden by her friend, the South African-born composer Priaulx Rainier.
Barbara Hepworth died in a fire at this site in 1975, which was caused by one of her cigarettes making some package burn, when she was aged 72.
The family passed the museum to the Tate gallery in 1980 and they still manage it.
Books
- The Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden by Miranda Phillips and Chris Stephens. Tate Publishing, 2002. {{ISBN|1-85437-412-5}}.
See also
{{Portal|Cornwall}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Barbara Hepworth Museum}}
- [http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/hepworth/ Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021034327/http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/hepworth/ |date=21 October 2007 }} Visiting information, events information, works on display (Tate Online)
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100704182708/http://www.artcornwall.org/ artcornwall.org] online journal for art and artists in Cornwall
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{{Culture of Cornwall}}
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{{Coord|50|12|49|N|5|28|53|W|type:landmark|display=title}}
Category:Sculpture galleries in the United Kingdom
Category:Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in the United Kingdom