EXHIBITION "ART & LIFE" BY BARBARA HEPWORTH

JUNE 28 - NOVEMBER 2, 2025

MARGUERITE AND AIMÉ MAEGHT FOUNDATION

The exhibition presented at the Maeght Foundation invites the visitor on a journey through the major stages of the career of the artist Barbara Hepworth.

Guest curator: Eleanor Clayton.

"Barbara Hepworth is one of the major figures of the twentieth century, whose work demands in-depth attention. This exhibition will highlight the richness of his inspirations and the way in which they have shaped his artistic practice. Deeply spiritual and passionately engaged in the political, social and technological debates of her time, Hepworth has relentlessly questioned the impact of sculpture on the viewer's perception and its ability to alter our view of the world." - Eleanor Clayton, curator of the exhibition.

The exhibition "Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life" invites the visitor on a journey through the major stages of the artist's career: from the first modernist sculptures of the 1920s and 1930s, which brought her to the public, to the iconic wireframe sculptures of the 1940s and 1950s, to her monumental commissions at the end of her career. This retrospective highlights how Hepworth integrated disciplines as diverse as music, dance, science, space exploration, politics, and religion into his work, while also drawing inspiration from the significant events in his personal life, building a singular vision of art and existence.

The exhibition opens with the artist's origins, focusing on his childhood in Yorkshire through archives and photographs. Some of his earliest study drawings, sculptures, and paintings will be on display, testifying to his early exploration of movement and the human figure. A proponent of direct carving, Hepworth combined a keen sensitivity to organic materials, such as wood and stone, with the development of a radically innovative abstract formal language. Carving (1932), the artist's first known work incorporating the "pierced form", rarely exhibited to the public, will be presented here thanks to an exceptional loan from a private collection.