Biography
The Hepworth Wakefield, previously Wakefield Art Gallery (1923-2010), was designed by award-winning British architect, David Chipperfield. It is an exciting venue for modern and contemporary art on the city’s waterfront and won Art Fund Museum of the Year (2017).
The centrepiece of The Hepworth’s collection includes a gift from the Hepworth Estate of over thirty of the artists' original plasters. It was these plaster carvings that Barbara Hepworth worked on directly in preparation for her final cast sculptures. These are displayed alongside a selection of work by other 20th-century artists including Ben Nicholson, Paul Nash, Jacob Epstein, William Roberts, David Bomberg, Walter Sickert, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore as well as the distinctive Supper at Emmaus with the Believer and the Sceptic (1958) by the radical Indian artist F. N. Souza. Pieces by notable British sculptors such as Lynn Chadwick, Kenneth Armtage, Lee Tribe, William Turnbull and Anthea Hamilton. The large assemblage Rig (2011) by Phyllida Barlow was most recently accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme (CGS) by HM Goverment through the Contemporary Art Society.
The gallery also has a collection of contemporary works, including pieces by artists as diverse as Maggi Hambling, Mat Collishaw, Bruce McLean, Anthony Caro, Bryan Kneale, Kim Lim, William Tucker and a wonderful jug by Bruce McLean.
Over 100 works have been gifted by the Contemporary Art Society in a variety of media, including most recently from the bequests of the sculptor, Edward Allington (1951-2017), ceramic collector Patricia Barnes (1928-2019) and potter Richard Batterham (1936-2021) as well as from the CAS Great Works scheme in 2021 Electrified (variable III) by Mona Hatoum, and a large fresco by the duo Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings
