For Hepworth, sculpture could embody life itself.
Sculpture is a three-dimensional projection of primitive feeling, she once remarked.
Read on to discover more about Hepworth’s fascinating life and work.
Her father was a civil engineer, and she frequently accompanied him on trips throughout rural England.
While studying there, she met fellow student and sculptorHenry Moore.
They became life-long friends and influenced each others work throughout the rest of their careers.
They both went on to attend Londons Royal College of Art in 1921.
She lost to fellow sculptorJohn Skeaping, who later became her husband.
In November 1926, the newlyweds returned to London.
Hepworth gave birth to her first child, Paul Skeaping, on August 3, 1929.
Many of her early works took the form of an infant, or a child and a mother.
These figures remained key motifs in Hepworths work but were later abstracted.
Nature also remained a prominent theme in her work, especially the sea and waves.
In the same year, she met abstract painterBen Nicholson, and the pair formed a relationship.
(They later married in 1938.)
During this time, Nicholson and Hepworth shared a studio and often collaborated.
Hepworth said of their relationship, as painter and sculptor each was the other’s best critic.
The work, titledPierced Form, was made from pink alabaster and featured a smooth, waving surface.
However, Hepworth didn’t see her as holes as gaps, but rather connections between form and space.
In 1934, Hepworth gave birth to triplets: Simon, Rachel, and Sarah Hepworth-Nicholson.
Hepworth recalled, It was a tremendously exciting event.
Between 1933 and 1934, Hepworth and Nicholson took part in the Paris-based exhibiting group,Abstraction-Creation.
Hepworth began exhibiting alongside these abstract artists in both the UK and in Paris.
In 1936, The Museum of Modern Art purchased its first Hepworth sculpture.
They stayed there until the war ended inside a small cottage.
The cramped conditions meant that Hepworth didnt have the space to sculpt, so her practice shifted to drawing.
She created a series, titledHospital Drawings(194749), which features men and women performing surgical procedures.
In 1975, Hepworth fell asleep while smoking a cigarette at her studio in St Ives.
The building burned down, and Hepworth died inside.
