Gimme Moore’s dirty tricks could not defeat his rival Hepworth

To be a successful artist in an art world that continues to confound us all with ever more shocking auction prices, you’ve got to be a shrewd operator. To be a sculptor takes even more ruthlessness. Let’s face it, as civilised and cultured as we think we are, a sculpture wouldn’t be on most people’s top 10 list of post-lottery win luxury acquisitions, mainly due to our strange but inherent fear of “where to put it”.

It’s hardly surprising, then, to learn that in a post-war depression Tate committee meeting, Henry Moore – one of Britain’s most successful sculptors – was not above discouraging the acquisition of a competitor. In 1945, the board of the Tate was considering the purchase of a wooden sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. According to previously unpublished diaries, Moore, then a gallery trustee, spoke out against the idea, rubbishing his rival with these damning words: “If sculpture [was] nothing more than that, it would be a poor affair.” Hepworth’s work was subsequently rejected by the Tate, which bought seven sculptures that same year – all made by Moore.

The fact that by the mid Seventies Moore had become one of Britain’s highest taxpayers shows he had an incredibly ruthless business head. He also encouraged generations of artists and the public to take sculpture seriously. Yet the scandal here is that the committee actually listened to Moore and discounted an acquisition which, in the 1950s would have been worth hundreds, but which would now be worth millions.

Does it matter that the worthy opponent Moore was lobbying against was a woman, his lifelong rival and friend Hepworth? It shouldn’t, but in this context it does. Despite both artists studying at Leeds College of Art, working in similar materials and excelling in their ability to manipulate form and texture on both miniature and monumental scales, saving us from further dreary decades of highly representational sculpture, a quick glance at the figures show that they still aren’t considered equal. The Tate has in its collection 914 works by Moore and only 134 by Hepworth; at auction Moore’s top record is just under £12m, Hepworth’s is £5m.

In 2011, fed up with the continued lack of attention given to female sculptors I curated a show called “Women Make Sculpture”. It hit the press because of the gender issue, but – disappointingly but perhaps unsurprisingly – was a commercial failure. One gentlemen suggested that there aren’t enough good female sculptors. There is still it appears, a leaning towards men – with or without vested interests. Discovering that one of our nation’s artistic icons was somewhat underhand is not so shocking, but it does bring to light the persistent back foot female artists still have to battle with.

Still, if we ignore the figures and measure success in other ways Hepworth has the last laugh. Where Moore stayed tactically close to London and played politics on committees, Hepworth moved to St Ives yet still managed to keep in with the London scene (no mere feat). She had four children – including triplets – yet found a way to balance her domestic and professional commitments so that she became one of the most successful female sculptors of all time. And she did it all without manipulating other people on the way. To order prints or signed copies of any Telegraph cartoon, go to telegraph.co.uk/prints-cartoons or call 0191 603 0178  readerprints@telegraph.co.uk