Barbara Hepworth

British, 1903-1975. Barbara Hepworth studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art along with Henry Moore. In 1928 Hepworth and Moore along with friend and fellow artist, Richard Bedford, became the leaders of this new direct carving sculpture method. By 1932, she and then husband Ben Nicholson mounted an exhibition of sculpture declaring their move into abstraction and joined the group, Abstraction-Création, and became the driving force behind constructivism. When World War II hit London, Hepworth escaped to St. Ives in Cornwall but worked to form an artists group that brought international acclaim to St. Ives artists after the war. Hepworth exhibited extensively and engaged to produce many public works including Single Form for the United Nations in 1964. Her work featured smooth curves and inventive exploration of negative space.