Artist / Sculptor / Lithographer
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Barbara Hepworth, DBE was an artist, sculptor and in later life a lithographer. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular how the movement was reflected in sculpture. She was one of the very few female artists of her generation to achieve major international prominence.
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.
She and Henry Moore became friends when they met at Leeds School of Art (1920) and together they established a long lasting professional rivalry. Interestingly, it is Hepworth who first sculpted pierced figures that are trademark elements of both artists work.
Halfway through any work, one is often tempted to go off on a tangent. Once you have yielded, you will be tempted to yield again and again... Finally, you would only produce something hybrid.
Hepworth received the Grand Prix at the 1959 São Paulo Art Biennial, was awarded a CBE in 1958 and appointed DBE in 1965.
I rarely draw what I see. I draw what I feel in my body. I love my blocks of marble, always piling up in the yard like a flock of sheep.
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