The Hepworth Wakefield
The Hepworth Wakefield is an inspiring art gallery in Yorkshire, UK and the striking building was designed by David Chipperfield Architects.The building is composed of a grouping of trapezoidal blocks and also contains learning studios, an auditorium, an archive, and a café and shop.
Barbara Hepworth + David Chipperfield. It was always bound to be a recipe for success and the gallery has deservedly won a whole host of awards.
Named after Barbara Hepworth, who was born in Wakefield in 1903 and lived there with her family until the age of 18, with 5,000 square metres of gallery space, The Hepworth Wakefield provides a permanent public legacy for the artist in her home city.
The highlight of The Hepworth Wakefield’s permanent collection is a group of over forty works given by her family that provides a unique insight into Barbara Hepworth’s working methods and creativity. The Hepworth Family Gift, donated through a special scheme facilitated by the Art Fund, comprises a unique collection of prototypes and models in plaster, aluminium and wood, from which casts were made in bronze or aluminium at the foundry. The majority are original plasters on which Hepworth worked with her own hands. Shown alongside the plasters are tools and materials from Hepworth’s studio. The installation, spread over two dedicated gallery spaces, includes the full-size prototype made by Hepworth of perhaps one of her best- known sculptures, Winged Figure, commissioned for the John Lewis Partnership building in Oxford Street London and installed in 1963.
We can't recommend The Hepworth enough, and it definitely needs to be on your list of places to visit when you can. Admission is free.