Dame Barbara Hepworth’s work exhibited in London for first time in nearly five decades

Sculptures produced by Wakefield-born artist Dame Barbara Hepworth will go on display at the Tate Britain tomorrow.
The Family of Man, a group of 9 individual bronze sculptures, one of Barbara Hepworths final works, completed in 1970 sits amongst the Autumnal trees at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park . Picture by Tony JohnsonThe Family of Man, a group of 9 individual bronze sculptures, one of Barbara Hepworths final works, completed in 1970 sits amongst the Autumnal trees at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park . Picture by Tony Johnson
The Family of Man, a group of 9 individual bronze sculptures, one of Barbara Hepworths final works, completed in 1970 sits amongst the Autumnal trees at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park . Picture by Tony Johnson

The first major Hepworth exhibition in London for nearly 50 years will showcase her earliest surviving carvings right through to her large-scale bronzes in the 1960s.

It features more than 100 works including some of her internationally-acclaimed scultptures in wood, stone and bronze as well as her rarely seen work.

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Hepworth studied at Leeds School of Art from 1920-21 alongside Leeds artist Henry Moore. She went on to study sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London and became internationally recognised.

She bought Trewyn Studio in St Ives in 1949, where she lived until her death in 1975.

The exhibition opens with her carvings from the 1920s, alongside works by her peers including Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore.

It goes on to showcase rarely seen textiles, drawings, collages and photograms by Hepworth and paintings, prints and drawings by her second husband Ben Nicholson in the 1930s. Other highlights include wooden sculptures from the 1940s, and bronzes from the 1960s.

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Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World will run until October, 25.

It tours to the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo in the Netherlands this autumn and to the Arp Museum, Rolandseck in Germany next year.

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