Visit to Hepworth Museum Wakefield

Today I had a lovely surprise at the Hepworth Museum in Wakefield,  a painting by one of my favourite painters, Ivon Hitchens, that I had never seen before. A wonderful subtle image with beautiful greys, and two figures which were as much part of the landscape as the trees.

The Roger Hilton painting made my pulse race just that little bit faster as I spied it at the end of one of the galleries that displayed work by many of the artists which Barbara Hepworth worked alongside in St Ives.

I sat on the floor to draw the piece made by Richard Long, in relation to a walk on dartmoor. Simple in its construct , but engaging if one took the time to contemplate the expanse of twigs.

And a tiny Elisabeth Frink maquette

The Gallery which houses many of the full scale plaster models bequeathed to the museum were originally housed in the Palais des Danses in St. Ives. The large piece at the back is six metres high, commissioned for the John Lewis flagship store on Oxford Street.

The light in the gallery in the museum is wonderful, there are great slashes in the ceiling where light floods into the space below. Barbara Hepworth was very concerned that sculpture could be sited outside, where the weather and the environment affects perception of forms.

The Museum building also takes this into account as it jostles for space along the rivers edge, overhanging the wear, with wonderful views of boats and barges and the industrial buildings which can be seen from the sensitively positioned windows.

Even the building itself, stark and monolithic seems to change colour in relation to the light, It was so much pinker when we left that when we arrived.