Stephen Feeke – författare

‘I have waited 30 yrs to see Greece’, Barbara Hepworth wrote while travelling through the Peloponnese and the Aegean and Cycladic islands in August 1954. At a turning point in Hepworth’s life and career, it would have a profound impact, leading her to reflect in 1964: ‘a whole decade later … It is deeply part of my work’ Shaping her thinking and expanding her artistic language, the memory of this transformative journey nourished Hepworth’s practice until the end of her life. Hepworth’s visceral encounter renewed her lifelong exploration of the relationship between the human figure and landscape. The colours, light, elemental forces and sense of space of Greece inspired some of her best-known works, including her extraordinary Guarea wood carvings and her Aegean Suite of lithographs. Beautifully illustrated and published to accompany the exhibition of the same title at Pallant House Gallery, Barbara Hepworth and Greece offers new insight into the work of Britain’s best-known modern artist. This is the first publication dedicated to Hepworth’s deep affinity for Greece – from her early fascination for classical culture, to the revelation she experienced after encountering its landscape, people and ancient art and architecture in 1954, through to the works of Greek inspiration she created in her last two decades.Distributed for Pallant House Gallery

Barbara Hepworth: Strings is the first publication dedicated to the artist’s stringed sculptures, paintings and drawings. In 1939, Hepworth (1903–1975) made her first sculpture threaded with strings. For the rest of her career, she intermittently combined string with works made from plaster, wood, metal and stone. These were some of her most personally distinctive artistic achievements. Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the artist’s death, Barbara Hepworth: Strings provides for the first time a comprehensive thematic account of string in the artist’s work, exploring the different ways that she used it and the symbolism she invested it with.This publication includes a fully-illustrated catalogue of Piano Nobile’s accompanying exhibition. It features essays by some of the leading specialists on Hepworth’s work. The exhibition co-curator Michael Regan offers a personal response to the stringed sculptures and considers their affective quality. In his essay, Dr Stephen Feeke explores fresh perspectives and previously unpublished source materials relating to Hepworth and string. A further text by Eleanor Clayton, senior curator at The Hepworth Wakefield, gives a close reading of the most significant stringed works including the artist’s celebrated commission for John Lewis’s flagship store on Oxford Street. The book also includes a comprehensive, illustrated list of Hepworth’s stringed sculptures.