I have always had an innate, incendiary love for the work of British artist Barbara Hepworth ever since I first saw her work in books and online, especially the stunning string sculptures full of tensioned negative and positive space. The work itself was as superb as I knew it would be, but the installation of it totally ruined my feeling for the art. A good principle to follow. But here I am having to write not about the art but its installation in the gallery spaces which crushed the soul β of the work and of this viewer.
They are not going to fade being made of bronze and wood! And the iPhone images in this posting are, as usual, way too bright, about 3 times brighter than it actually wasβ¦.
Walking around the main gallery I felt like I was all at sea, the Titanic surrounded by sea of floating icebergs, afraid of stepping backwards for fear of knocking into one of the plinths and the sculpture being sunk without trace. I felt like I was in a cheap multiplex cinema. The sculptures were asymmetrically placed in the spaces so you could not see them in the round there being only a foot or so to walk between the plinth and the curtains.
She never set foot in Australia but her work has surely been murdered here, leaving her rolling in her grave. All installation photographs by Marcus Bunyan. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image. Wills Bequest to commemorate the retirement of Dr E. The doyenne of modernist sculpture, Barbara Hepworth was one of the leading British artists of her generation and the first woman sculptor to achieve international recognition.
The first exhibition of her work in Australia, Barbara Hepworth: In Equilibrium brings together more than forty works from prestigious international and national collections, including sculptures in stone, wood, bronze and other metals and a select group of paintings. Introducing Australian audiences to her remarkable oeuvre, the exhibition has been developed in consultation with the Hepworth Estate and has been designed by award-winning architecture firm Studio Bright.
