Hepworth in Colour review – salty Cornish seascapes compressed into immaculate sculptures
Courtauld, London Barbara Hepworth’s elegant works, with their harp-like strings and splashes of blue, evoke the foamy breakers of St Ives. But should we really
Courtauld, London Barbara Hepworth’s elegant works, with their harp-like strings and splashes of blue, evoke the foamy breakers of St Ives. But should we really be surprised she used colour? They say in St Ives that if you put your ear to a Barbara Hepworth sculpture, you can hear the waves breaking on Porthmeor beach.
Well, maybe they do say that and maybe they don’t. But the sea definitely roars in the ravishing sculptures at the heart of this small survey of just one aspect of her work: her use of colour.
Hepworth’s favourite colours turn out to be – wait for it – blue and white, the colours of the sea: the white foamy breakers and the rippling waters that swaddle the Cornish fishing town where her home and studio are proudly preserved.
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