This archive study day explores how Barbara Hepworth experimented with twentieth-century image and display cultures, choreographing her sculpture in a range of environments and contexts to shape her own artistic reputation. Ticket includes two curator-led study sessions by Eleanor Clayton, formerly at The Hepworth Wakefield, and Inga Fraser, Tate Britain, plus entrance to the exhibition Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World.
In the Library & Archive Study Room, Eleanor Clayton explores Barbara Hepworth’s interest in how her artworks were staged in public and private arenas. The development of one of Hepworth’s most significant exhibitions – the 1968 retrospective at Tate Gallery – is traced through archival material including letters, photographs and film. Particular attention is paid to the artist’s focus on radical exhibition design; other sculptural exhibitions of the time are also considered to probe Hepworth’s new approaches to presenting sculpture and discuss whether they were successful. In the Manton Studio, Inga Fraser discusses how Barbara Hepworth framed her work and how she herself was framed as an artist in photographs and film. The session includes film screenings and explores the significance of (self)representation and new media for the artist’s practice.
Eleanor Clayton is an independent curator and writer based in Manchester. She has recently curated A Greater Freedom: Hepworth 1965-75 and Hepworth in Yorkshire in her role as Curator at The Hepworth Wakefield. She has previously worked as Assistant Curator: Exhibitions and Displays at Tate Liverpool, and Assistant Curator: Public Programmes at Tate Britain.
Inga Fraser is Assistant Curator for Modern British Art at Tate Britain, and is one of the curators of Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World.