LEADING LIGHT
Creative luminaries praise Hepworth’s enduring legacy
Jonathan Anderson, fashion designer
‘There is something deeply personal about Hepworth’s forms: they are incredibly sensual somehow. If you look at her early carvings of the female body, or her depiction of families, it’s so fascinating – you see something taken down to its essence. I went to the London College of Fashion and I used to walk past her Winged Figure sculpture on the John Lewis building every day. The idea that the objects she makes can live in a domestic space or an urban setting, but can also compete with nature, is one of the things I find deeply inspiring.’
Margaret Howell, fashion designer
‘Barbara Hepworth’s work has integrity, and the ability to surprise and stimulate. I was inspired by a photograph of Hepworth wearing her windcheater – sleeves rolled up, chisel
in hand – to design my version of a windcheater, but that inspiration came from her attitude. She succeeded in a challenging, predominantly male-led field, and it’s thanks to her strength, discipline and dedication that she had a vital role in changing the form and scale of sculpture.’
Ali Smith, writer
‘What a voice. Hepworth was one of our most eloquent speakers on time, on life, on what we make of these, and on the art process at the core of both. Fiercely intelligent, always striving against any falsity or pretension, both in what she said and what she made, she defined art as the opposite of elitism and was committed to the “universal language” she knew it to be.’