Talk | Curator’s Lecture on Barbara Hepworth and Greece
2–3pm
£18 (£16.20 For Friends and other concessions)
[ Talk )
Buy Tickets >Join Melanie Vandenbrouck, Chief Curator at Pallant House Gallery, and discover how Barbara Hepworth’s artistic vision was transformed by her visit to Greece in 1954.
One of Britain’s most celebrated artists, Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) is widely known for her distinctive abstract sculpture. What is less explored is her deep affinity with Greece and how her one and only trip there, aged 51, renewed her vision at a crucial point in her life.
In August 1954, Hepworth embarked on a pioneering cultural cruise, sailing through the Corinth Canal to the Aegean Sea. On this fast-paced journey, she visited the ancient sites of Athens, Delphi, Epidauros and Mycenae on the mainland; crossed the sea to Crete, Rhodes, Cos, Patmos, Delos and Santorini, and soaked up the light, warmth and ancient history of the expansive landscape she paced.
Delving into the artist’s travel diary and the extraordinary works she produced after her trip, this introduction will explore how the memory of this transformative journey would have a profound impact on Hepworth, nourishing her practice until the end of her life. It will reveal how the vibrant colours, radiant light, elemental forces and sense of space in Greece inspired some of her best-known works, from her extraordinary guarea wood carvings to her ‘Aegean Suite’ of lithographs.
Melanie Vandenbrouck
Dr Melanie Vandenbrouck is Chief Curator at Pallant House Gallery. Formerly Curator of Sculpture 1900–Now at the V&A and Curator of Art Post-1800 at Royal Museums Greenwich in London, she has led major contemporary art initiatives. Her wide interests include the porosity between artforms and the ways in which art and identity intersect. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, she holds a PhD from the Courtauld Institute and trained at the École du Louvre and Sorbonne University in Paris as well as Sussex University.
