Date: 12/12/2005
Source: Yorkshire Post
Her work gained her an international reputation which few English artists have achieved and in the summer work is due to start on a museum dedicated to Dame Barbara Hepworth. It will also house a city's art collection. Joanne Ginley reports.
NATURE was a formative influence on Wakefield-born Dame Barbara Hepworth.
In youth her imagination was captured by the calm and majesty of the West Riding and the Pennines. Cornwall, where she lived and worked in later life, also had a great impact.
Now the city of her birth is set to ensure her contribution to the art world is recognised by future generations by making it the centrepiece in the redevelopment of the city’s Waterfront.
This summer, work begins on the long-awaited £22m museum in Wakefield which will celebrate the late Dame Barbara’s achievements, showcase her work and offer visitors a chance to learn more about the sculptor, her creative process and influences. The Hepworth will also house the city’s impressive art collections as well as offering workspace for artists and educational facilities.
At the centre of the gallery, designed by architect David Chipperfield, will be a collection of 30 original plasters used by Dame Barbara when casting her bronze sculptures, donated by the Hepworth family trust.
Her grand-daughter, Sophie Bowness, who lives in London said: “The Hepworth estate is wholeheartedly supportive of the project.
“We felt that Wakefield, where Barbara was born and grew up, offered a wonderful home for the plasters and The Hepworth promises to be a very significant and innovative new gallery.”
The Wakefield area is of major significance in modern British sculpture, also producing Castleford-born Henry Moore. Wakefield’s art collection includes significant works by both sculptors.
The museum will also display a collection of landscapes from Wakefield and elsewhere in Yorkshire, notably the Gott collection – an internationally significant and rarely seen group of watercolour paintings, sketches and prints.
Since the 1930s the art gallery has been housed in a former doctor’s house in Wentworth Terrace, Wakefield. It is a small space and Gordon Watson, project director of The Hepworth, said: “We can only show a very small percentage of the collections at any one time.”
The new museum will feature galleries, an artist’s studio, space that can be used for performances and conferences, facilities for schools and community groups, family activities and a cafe and shops. Together with the 30 original plasters given to the museum, it will also feature finished sculptures and displays about Dame Barbara, who died in 1975, and her work.
Historically, the waterfront was an important working quarter of the city, with its waterways providing important transport links.
The Hepworth, which is to be built next to the River Calder, will play a key role in the redevelopment of the area, creating flats, office space, retail and leisure opportunities.
A new pedestrian bridge will be built between The Hepworth and the city centre
It should be open to the public by autumn 2008 and it is hoped that the museum will prove a hit with residents and will assist in attracting tourists to the area.
Much of the cash for the project is already in place, with Heritage Lottery Fund bosses initially agreeing to give the project £4.9m, subject to agreeing fuller business plans.
The project has also won a £5m grant from the Arts Council.
Mr Watson said that there had been plenty of support from residents, keen to see a museum to Dame Barbara.
“It’s quite interesting the number of local people who see her as a very inspirational figure, as an artist and as a female artist,” he said.
“I think people are quite proud of the fact that she came from Wakefield.”
Dr Bowness said of her grandmother: “Yorkshire and its landscape shaped her life and remained alive for her.
“Barbara returned to Yorkshire on relatively few occasions, partly because of its distance from St Ives and because she travelled relatively little, being so dedicated to her work.
“Her last visit to Yorkshire was in 1961, when she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Leeds University.”
