My paper ‘Form and Colour: Friendship, Patronage and Collaboration between Barbara Hepworth, Leslie Martin and Sadie Speight‘ for the Hepworth Research Network has gone live on their website.
Hepworth Research Network
The Hepworth Research Network is a partnership between The Hepworth Wakefield with the Universities of York and Huddersfield. Its aim is to ‘bring artists, art historians, conservators and curators together to share their knowledge of the material practices of sculpture’. I delivered the ‘Colour and Form’ paper at the network’s launch on 12-13 March 2020.
Friendship, Patronage and Collaboration
The architect Leslie Martin (1908-2000) and his wife, the designer Sadie Speight (1906-92), first saw the work of Barbara Hepworth in London in 1934. They thereafter became lifelong friends, patrons and collaborators. My paper is based on Martin’s personal papers, which were acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland in 2002. They include forty-three items relating to Hepworth, such as letters and photographs, which cover the period from 1935 to 1972.
National Galleries of Scotland (c) Bowness
Barbara Hepworth: Art and Life
The research launch was held during the major retrospective Barbara Hepworth: Art and Life at the Hepworth Wakefield. A touring version of this exhibition can be seen at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two from 9 April 2022. It will include her beautiful Wave, seen above.
For more on Hepworth, you might enjoy this feature. The Hepworth Research Network features in this post and for an article about sculpture and architecture, follow this link.
