Barbara Hepworth

About Barbara Hepworth

Inception: 1950

Notable quotes

“Carving is interrelated masses conveying an emotion; a perfect relationship between the mind and the colour, light and weight which is the stone, made by the hand which feels. It must be so essentially sculpture that it can exist in no other way, something completely the right size but which has growth, something still and yet having movement, so very quiet and yet with a real vitality.”
— Extract from Hepworth's statement in Unit One, as cited in The Modern Movement in English Architecture, Painting and Sculpture, ed. Herbert Read, London, 1934, p. 19
“Before I start carving the idea must be almost complete. I say 'almost' because the really important thing seems to be the sculptor's ability to let his intuition guide him over the gap between conception and realization without compromising the integrity of the original idea; the point being that the material has vitality – it resists and makes demands..”
— p. 279
“[the 1960's began] with a feeling of tremendous liberation, because I at last had space and money and time to work on a much bigger scale.”
— Interview with Alan Bowness, published in Bowness (ed.), The complete sculpture of Barbara Hepworth 1960–69, London, 1971, p. 7
“Saw a magnificent Koros – tall, fierce and passionate bigger than life size – in the Museum. A heavenly work – the backs and buttocks in relation to the hip and waist – an inspiration. I thought the fragment of leg and calf (attached below the knee) was falsely attributed.”
— Quote from Barbara Hepworth, in her 'Greek diary' - 1965; J.P Hodin, European Critic; London: Corby, Adams and MacKay
“The naturalness of life... the sense of community is, I think, a very important factor in an artist's life.”
— "A Pictorial Biography" (Tate Publishing, London, 1970)
“It's [the art-magazine 'Circle'] been reprinted and it's now referred to as classic. Well it is. But w:Ben Nicholson, Sir Leslie Martin, Gabo and Leslie Martin's wife, Sadie Speaight, and I did that. We were sitting round the fire and we said, 'Why shouldn't we do a book?'. And so we started and now it's a classic and referred to as such.”
— p. 17

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.