Skip navigation

Main menu

  • What's on
  • Art & Artists
    • The Collection
      Artists
      Artworks
      Art by theme
      Media
      Videos
      Podcasts
      Short articles
      Learning
      Schools
      Art Terms
      Tate Research
      Art Making
      Create like an artist
      Kids art activities
      Tate Draw game
  • Visit
  • Shop
Become a Member
  • DISCOVER ART
  • ARTISTS A-Z
  • ARTWORK SEARCH
  • ART BY THEME
  • VIDEOS
  • ART TERMS
  • SCHOOLS
  • TATE KIDS
  • RESEARCH
  • Tate Britain
    Tate Britain Free admission
  • Tate Modern
    Tate Modern Free admission
  • Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
    Tate Liverpool + RIBA North Free admission
  • Tate St Ives
    Tate St Ives Ticket or membership card required
  • FAMILIES
  • ACCESSIBILITY
  • SCHOOLS
  • PRIVATE TOURS
Tate Logo
Become a Member
Tate Britain Exhibition

Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World

24 June – 25 October 2015
Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World at Tate Britain, 24 June – 25 October 2015

Barbara Hepworth, photomontage of Helicoids in Sphere 1938, and the entrance hall of the Doldertal apartments in Zurich by Alfred and Emil Roth with Marcel Breuer

Architectural Review © Bowness, Hepworth Estate

Book now to see Barbara Hepworth, one of the leading sculptors of the 20th century. This retrospective of one of Britain’s greatest artists features many of her most significant and beautiful sculptures in wood, stone and bronze alongside rarely seen works.

Dame Barbara Hepworth
Pelagos (1946)
Tate

Barbara Hepworth © Bowness

Barbara Hepworth in the Palais studio

Barbara Hepworth in the Palais studio

Installation shot of Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World at Tate Britain

Installation shot of Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World at Tate Britain

Installation shot of Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World

Installation shot of Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World

Dame Barbara Hepworth
Curved Form (Trevalgan) (1956)
Tate

Barbara Hepworth © Bowness

Barbara Hepworth was born in Yorkshire in 1903. She lived in Cornwall since 1939 and has become principally associated with the art of St Ives and with the sea and landscape of that place. This exhibition presents her in a broader light and spans her whole career. 

Hepworth emerged in the late 1920s as a leading member of a new generation of sculptors. Her work became increasingly abstract in the 1930s and, after moving to Cornwall, she began to make sculpture in terms of her experience of landscape. She continued to carve throughout her life, but from 1956 she also made works in bronze which allowed her to produce more and which were better suited to international travel.

This exhibition traces Hepworth’s growing international success offering fresh ways of thinking about her art. Uniquely, this retrospective also plays with the different spaces in which Hepworth presented her work – the show includes an impressive reconstruction of a modernist structure to showcase Hepworth’s ‘ideal’ environment. Among the highlights are four large sculptures in sumptuous African hardwood – the high point in her post war carving career – reunited in one room.

Alongside sculpture the show features fascinating photographs that have never been seen before in public, rarely seen textiles, collages, film and selected works by her peers and predecessors from Jacob Epstein to Henry Moore.

Elegant, exemplary and exhilaratingly beautiful
Evening Standard

A unique opportunity to see some of Hepworth’s greatest works, gathered together
Telegraph

This show delivers an exhilarating blast of vital, heartfelt art
Time Out

★★★★
The Times

★★★★★ Ravishing exhibition…. traces an inspiring journey
The Mail on Sunday 

This film file is broken and is being removed. Sorry for any inconvenience this causes.

Barbara Hepworth Letters | TateShots

Tate Britain

Millbank
London SW1P 4RG
Plan your visit

Dates

24 June – 25 October 2015

Sponsored by

Bet 365

Bet 365

In partnership with

The Barbara Hepworth Exhibition Supporters Group

The Barbara Hepworth Exhibition Supporters Group

Times Newspapers Ltd

Times Newspapers Ltd

Related events

Find out more

  • Artist

    Dame Barbara Hepworth

    1903–1975
  • Download Tate Kids: Make a Hepworth necklace PDF

Artwork
Close

Join in

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Sign up to emails

Sign up to emails

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tate’s privacy policy

About

  • About us
  • Our collection
  • Terms and copyright
  • Governance
  • Picture library
  • ARTIST ROOMS
  • Tate Kids

Support

  • Tate Collective
  • Members
  • Patrons
  • Donate
  • Corporate
  • My account
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Contact
© The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery, 2025
All rights reserved