The Hepworth Gallery

During our day trip to Yorkshire alongside the Fine Art class, we visited the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield. The actual architectural structure of the gallery was extremely eye-catching as it is an asymmetrical concrete block building situated on the the River Calder and is accessed by a custom made bridge. David Chipperfield, an award winning architect, designed and constructed the building in the early 2000's. His intent with the placement of the windows around the gallery was to introduce daylight to the exhibitions to allow visitors to view local attractions as well as the art pieces on show.
The name Hepworth came from local successful artist, Barbara Hepworth who was said to have been one of the most successful artists of the 20th century.

The diagonal appearance of the architecture is not presented only on the exterior, inside the gallery, diagonal walls and rooms reject the white cube effect by distorting the dimensions of each indoor space to create a one of a kind exhibtion space. Personally, I did not find this very effective as it made the separate rooms the artworks were presented in, resemble a maze, this took the attention off of the art and more onto the dimensions of the room. The strategically placed windows added to the gallery as a large majority of them resembled a frame, capturing key points and tourist attractions of wakefield, this made them appear as piece of work on their own and not simply a window.

My first look at the art collection within the Hepworth gallery was a positive experience as I was greeted with a whole room full of Henry Moore sculptures and photographs. Printed on the walls was an explanation of Barbra Hepworth's early life, this was recurring amenity within this gallery as throughout the exhibitions it would share key points of Hepworth's life and her work. Within this brief behind her early life it explains as to why there is a large Henry Moore exhibition here, it was due to their friendship formed through the commencement of an exclusive artistic circle in the 1930's.



Within the next room their was several large collections holding some of Barbra Hepworth's famous work and a number of her private pieces on show to the public specifically. These consisted majorly of paintings, I did not find this collection very enticing as it seemed slightly dull to the eye. Their was a major white cube effect to the room, usually this would have been effective but within this collection, the paintings were particularly small and made with muted colours so there was no major attraction to the eye. Within the collection exhibiting Barbra's work there was also a number of the sculptures she had created on show, these were unique pieces that are a must see due to their unusual nature and stature. Tall, pointed, towering pieces of metal combined in the same room as smaller sculptures such as pottery, this created a unique but strong differentiation in the work within the room.

In the last room, the most random room in my opinion, there was a collection of pieces of artwork from all over the globe, no pieces was related to the next, all had different meanings and all were different in nature. For example there was a painting of a woman of high status from the 1600's along with a dress collar from the Tudor period, but next to these pieces sat a giant sculpture made from fishing metals and tins. These were all gifts to the gallery and Barbra Hepworth herself but the way they were curated within the room made it seem slightly confusing, although each piece was extraordinary to look at, it was too crowded with artwork to be able to fully appreciate it.