Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life

ISBN: 050009425X

Author: Clayton, Eleanor

Condition: New

A richly illustrated biography on the life and work of Barbara Hepworth, one of the twentieth centurys most inspiring artists and a pioneer of modernist sculpture.Barbara Hepworth is one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, and her organic sculptures have come to exemplify three-dimensional modernist art. Published at a time of increasing interest in her work, this biography moves beyond the traditional narratives of modernism to provide comprehensive insight into Hepworths remarkable life, work, and legacy.In her lifetime, Hepworth was reproached for single-mindedness, with critics and commentators framing her work and demeanor as cool and restrained. Moreover, most exhibitions of her work in the twentieth century focused on Hepworths modernist abstract sculpture of the 1930s and its relation to her male contemporaries, leaving vast swathes of work overlooked, such as her largest and most significant public commission, the sculpture outside the UN building in New York.This fully illustrated biography reflects Hepworths multifaceted and interdisciplinary approach, shedding new light on her interests in music, dance, poetry, contemporary politics, science, and technology. Author Eleanor Clayton uncovers Hepworths engagement with these fields through friends and networks and examines how they show up in Hepworths artistic practice, and how the artist synthesized seemingly conflicting disciplines and ideas into one coherent and inspirational philosophy of art and life. 161 illustrations