Latest news with #HepworthWakefield
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Battle to stop removal of wartime sculpture from Britain
A fundraising campaign has been launched to try and stop a wartime sculpture from being taken overseas by its new owner. After buying Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red by Dame Barbara Hepworth for more than £3.5 million in March last year, the purchaser wanted to take it out of Britain. Art Fund, a charity that raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation, is spearheading a campaign to keep it from being taken from British shores. In November, the Government placed an export bar on the sculpture, which was created in Cornwall during the height of the Second World War. This gave institutions until Aug 27 to match the bid of the owner. Art Fund, which provides financial support for museums and the Hepworth Wakefield, has provided £750,000 of the amount needed, leaving £2.9 million still required. Eleanor Clayton, the senior curator at the Hepworth Wakefield and an expert on the sculptor, said the work needed to remain in the UK for the benefit of future generations. She said: 'The piece is one of the earliest and best examples of the wooden, string-carved sculptures that she became really well known for. 'There's only a handful of painted wooden strung works that she made during the whole of the 40s. And you can see this all in this work that she made whilst juggling childcare and domestic chores.' The sculpture was completed in 1943 after Hepworth moved to St Ives, Cornwall, with her family. She remained there until her death in 1975, aged 72. The artwork has always been in private ownership after being acquired directly from Hepworth by Helen Sutherland in 1944. It was shown as part of a Hepworth exhibition at Tate Britain in 2015. Campaigners now hope that the piece can be purchased and permanently kept on public display. Artists and creatives including Jonathan Anderson, Richard Deacon, Katy Hessel, Sir Anish Kapoor, Veronica Ryan, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread have backed the appeal. Jenny Waldman, the director of Art Fund, said: 'These campaigns are very rare. Help us to save an absolutely key work of art for the nation. 'It will be enjoyed, researched and be the source of inspiration for generations to come. Please join us in helping to save this remarkable work for everyone to enjoy.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Gallery raising £3.8m for Hepworth 'masterpiece'
A West Yorkshire art gallery is attempting to raise sufficient funds to purchase a Dame Barbara Hepworth sculpture "for the nation". The Hepworth Wakefield wants to buy Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red, created in the 1940s, in order for it to go on permanent public display. The oval-shaped piece, which sold for more than £3.5m in 2024, was later given a temporary export bar preventing it from leaving the country - providing a UK gallery the chance to acquire it. The Art Fund charity has offered £750,000 towards the cost, however a further £2.9m is required before a 27 August deadline. If the target was not met, the sculpture by the Wakefield-born artist would go to a private buyer and be taken overseas. The appeal is backed by artists and creatives including Sir Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Jonathan Anderson, Richard Deacon, Katy Hessel, Veronica Ryan, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread. The piece is one of only a handful of wooden carvings made by the artist during the 1940s, when she lived in St Ives, Cornwall, with her young family. If bought, the Hepworth said it would be a "star piece" in its collection. The gallery also planned to lend it to other museums and galleries across the UK, "opening up access for people everywhere". Simon Wallis, gallery director, said: "We established The Hepworth Wakefield 14 years ago to celebrate, explore and build on Barbara Hepworth's legacy. "This sculpture is the missing piece, a masterpiece which deserves to be on display in the town where Hepworth was born." Sir Antony said: "Barbara Hepworth's work remains a luminary example of both an engagement with modernism and a return to direct carving. "The opportunity for the museum named after her to acquire this important work is precious and should be supported." The gallery is home to Wakefield's art collection, including significant works by Dame Barbara but excluding her finished works from the 1940s. Jenny Waldman, Art Fund director, said: "This rare and significant sculpture should be on public display in the UK now and for generations to come. "Every museum should have the power to secure landmark works of art but in today's challenging funding climate they simply cannot compete with the prices demanded on the open market." She added: "We applaud The Hepworth Wakefield for the huge ambition of their bid to bring this Hepworth home." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. Bid to stop Hepworth sculpture from leaving UK Hepworth sculpture set to sell for up to £3.2m Dame Barbara Hepworth sculpture sold for £3.5m The Hepworth Wakefield Art Fund
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Charity hopes to raise nearly £3m to keep Barbara Hepworth sculpture in UK
A fundraising drive with a target of almost £3m is under way to prevent a Barbara Hepworth masterpiece from being sold to a private buyer and taken out of the UK. Art Fund, the charity that secures art for public collections while providing financial support for museums and the Hepworth Wakefield, is trying to secure the funds in order to keep Sculpture with Colour (Deep Blue and Red) in the UK. The piece, which Hepworth created in the midst of the second world war while living in Cornwall, was sold at auction by Christie's last March for £3.8m. But the UK government placed an export bar on the sculpture, which gives the institutions until August to match the money the private buyer – who plans to take the piece abroad – was willing to pay. Art Fund has provided £750,000 but another £2.9m needs to be found before the deadline of 27 August. Eleanor Clayton, senior curator at the Hepworth Wakefield and a Barbara Hepworth specialist, said the sculpture by the Wakefield-born artist must be kept in the UK so future generations could see it on display. She said: 'Hepworth is obviously one of the most important British sculptors and really set the standard for what we think of as modern sculpture today. The piece is one of the earliest and best examples of the wooden, string-carved sculptures that she became really well known for.' Clayton added: 'It's an incredible opportunity. If we're successful, it would be pretty much on permanent display to the public, either in Wakefield or we would lend it to important exhibitions around the country.' Sculpture with Colour (Deep Blue and Red) was made in 1943 after Hepworth had moved her family to St Ives in Cornwall with her then husband, Ben Nicholson, to escape the blitz during the second world war. Hepworth had to obtain a special permit to use wood for her sculptures and the piece was crafted using string, one of the first times she had worked in such a way. 'They required a government permanent permit to carve into wood,' said Clayton. 'She wrote a lot about the difficulties of actually obtaining seasoned wood that wouldn't split immediately when she started carving. There's only a handful of these that are still in existence.' Hepworth once said the strings represented the tension she felt between 'myself and the sea, the wind or the hills' in Cornwall. She worked in St Ives up to her death in a fire in 1975. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Sculpture with Colour (Deep Blue and Red) was initially bought by the 'patron, socialite and connoisseur' Helen Sutherland and has always remained in private ownership. The work was cherished by Hepworth and the plaster prototype of the sculpture was the only piece she brought with her to Cornwall. Clayton said that the making of the piece was remarkable, not just because of the difficulties related to the war but also the time constraints Hepworth faced due to her domestic workload. 'She was juggling childcare and domestic chores,' Clayton said. 'She wrote in a letter to a friend and critic how she had to work for 30 minutes, and then she had to cook for the children, and then she'd go back to the studio and carve for another 20 minutes. Then she'd have to go and do some washing. It's sort of astonishing that it was made within these circumstances and with the threat of war in the background.' The piece was last shown in the UK as part of the Hepworth retrospective at Tate Britain in 2015 – one of the rare times it's been seen in public. That exhibition was the first big UK staging of her work since the late 1960s. For much of her lifetime Hepworth lived in the shadow of Henry Moore – the other great British 20th-century sculptor. Clayton said Hepworth had expressly wanted her work to be seen in the flesh. 'She said you have to see the sculpture in three dimensions – you have to walk around it. You can't get the sense of it from a picture, you have to see them in person.'
Rhyl Journal
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Rhyl Journal
Jenny Eclair backs £3.8m fundraiser to ‘save Hepworth artwork for the nation'
Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red, created in the 1940s, was auctioned by Christie's in March last year for millions of pounds. Toward the end of 2024, the sculpture was given a temporary export bar to prevent it from leaving the UK, allowing time for a UK gallery to acquire it. The Hepworth Wakefield art museum and national charity Art Fund have launched an appeal to acquire it, with the aim of permanently and publicly displaying the sculpture in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where artist Dame Barbara was born. Artists and creatives including Jonathan Anderson, Richard Deacon, Katy Hessel, Sir Anish Kapoor, Veronica Ryan, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread have backed the appeal. Sir Antony, 74, said: 'Barbara Hepworth's work remains a luminary example of both an engagement with modernism and a return to direct carving. 'The opportunity for the museum named after her to acquire this important work is precious and should be supported.' Sculptor Sir Anish, 71, who won the Turner Prize in 1991, said: 'Barbara Hepworth's Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red must be saved for the nation. 'Art fund has put up a quarter of the value of this important sculpture in an extraordinary bid to keep this work in a public collection and accessible to all. 'This sculpture comes from a period of work by Hepworth in which she explores form and emptiness and looks forward to radical modernity.' Simon Wallis, director, The Hepworth Wakefield, added: 'We established The Hepworth Wakefield 14 years ago to celebrate, explore and build on Barbara Hepworth's legacy. 'This sculpture is the missing piece, a masterpiece which deserves to be on display in the town where Hepworth was born.' The museum is home to Wakefield's art collection, including significant works by Dame Barbara but excluding her finished works from the 1940s. The art work is made of painted wood and string and is part of a larger series in Dame Barbara's oeuvre, which she developed throughout the Second World War after she settled with her family in St Ives, Cornwall.
Powys County Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Jenny Eclair backs £3.8m fundraiser to ‘save Hepworth artwork for the nation'
Comedian Jenny Eclair and sculptor Sir Antony Gormley are among the backers of a £3.8 million fundraiser to save a Dame Barbara Hepworth artwork 'for the nation'. Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red, created in the 1940s, was auctioned by Christie's in March last year for millions of pounds. Toward the end of 2024, the sculpture was given a temporary export bar to prevent it from leaving the UK, allowing time for a UK gallery to acquire it. The Hepworth Wakefield art museum and national charity Art Fund have launched an appeal to acquire it, with the aim of permanently and publicly displaying the sculpture in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where artist Dame Barbara was born. Artists and creatives including Jonathan Anderson, Richard Deacon, Katy Hessel, Sir Anish Kapoor, Veronica Ryan, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread have backed the appeal. Sir Antony, 74, said: 'Barbara Hepworth's work remains a luminary example of both an engagement with modernism and a return to direct carving. 'The opportunity for the museum named after her to acquire this important work is precious and should be supported.' Sculptor Sir Anish, 71, who won the Turner Prize in 1991, said: 'Barbara Hepworth's Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red must be saved for the nation. 'Art fund has put up a quarter of the value of this important sculpture in an extraordinary bid to keep this work in a public collection and accessible to all. 'This sculpture comes from a period of work by Hepworth in which she explores form and emptiness and looks forward to radical modernity.' Simon Wallis, director, The Hepworth Wakefield, added: 'We established The Hepworth Wakefield 14 years ago to celebrate, explore and build on Barbara Hepworth's legacy. 'This sculpture is the missing piece, a masterpiece which deserves to be on display in the town where Hepworth was born.' The museum is home to Wakefield's art collection, including significant works by Dame Barbara but excluding her finished works from the 1940s. The art work is made of painted wood and string and is part of a larger series in Dame Barbara's oeuvre, which she developed throughout the Second World War after she settled with her family in St Ives, Cornwall.
