A Visit to The Hepworth Wakefield Art Gallery
Recently I visited The Hepworth Wakefield art museum in Yorkshire that's named after Barbara Hepworth, one of the most important artists of the 20th century and was born and brought up in Wakefield. My main focus was the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) that's nearby but I also thought I would visit here to learn about Barbara Hepworth and walk around this fantastic piece of architecture.
The building was designed by David Chipperfield Architects and looked to fuse the waterfront area with the industrial heritage of the site. Interestingly this gallery can both be heated and cooled thanks to the river's flow, which I thought was kind of intriguing, and the exterior facade is a pigmented concrete the in a number of ways mirror the forms of Barbara Hepworth. Walking around you can touch the walls, so silky and smooth! I could see the links to Tadao Ando's architectural style.
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Walking around the building I was really in awe, it felt so light and airy, spacious and well lit thanks to large windows that give you views over the water. I would class it as a meditative space. Inside are a number of works by Barbara herself but there are also those by Henry Moore, another British sculptor of the time, and works by ceramic artists such as Lucie Rie. They are also exhibiting photography and other one of kind of artworks from this era, so there is really something for everyone.
Weirdly I felt a strong attraction to the tools that were in the glass cases, those that Barbara Hepworth used at her studio in Cornwall (which I recommend you visit too!). I've seen a number of videos of her making and these tools were featured in these documentaries, so there was a spiritual vibe of sorts reverberating from them. I guess as a maker myself they would be an obvious point of focus.
This museum is certainly worth a visit wherever you like in the UK. I would reccomend going on a sunny day and visiting the Yorkshire Sculpture Park too, they both go together nicely and require a full day to explore.
More can be found out about The Hepworth Wakefield here →
More from my Travels:
Exploring Helsinki - Finlandia Hall by Architect Alvar Aalto
A Selection of Outtakes from Kettle's Yard in Cambridge
Exploring Naoshima - A Visit to the Lee Ufan Museum
Naoshima - Tadao Ando's Concrete Walls
Exploring Osaka - Inside the TRUCK Furniture Showroom
Exploring Tokyo - Hama Rikyu Gardens
Please follow me @oen for more interesting art, design and travel content.
Thank you for the tour, I also wanted to touch these walls))
how do you manage to travel so much?
haha I own a business so I tend to take trips to different places quite often. I often go to Japan for 1 month a year, sometimes more, so some of these photos are spread out as I edit them (not real time) :D
Wow! I would live like this)))
I have to say, I'm really not into that building. It looks like a boring block. Or bunch of blocks.
Hey @choogirl. Thanks for the comment. Yeah, my photos don't do it much justice but the interior is very nice with the view over the water. I think you would like that 😌
I was always being watched with my camera so I couldn't take too many pics in the gallery lol But all good ...
looks like a very nice and clean designed building!
Yeah! It was a very nice building. Thanks for the comment :)
To think that such seemingly crude looking tools can make such things of beauty such as those sculptures. The skill of an artist to visualise these and render them into the real world always amazes me. Thanks for the many great photos and description of this gallery.
Yeah, have you seen her documentary? You should definitely watch it if you can find it. You can see her chipping away at the stone in her studio, really incredible to watch :) Thanks for the comment.
No haven't seen it, but watching an artist at work and learning more about them is always of interest t me. Thanks for letting me know.
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