Image:Barbara Hepworth, Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red, 1943 (Betty Saunders)
Major National Lottery Heritage Fund grant boosts Barbara Hepworth sculpture acquisition campaign to 80% of £3.8m target ahead of August deadline.
The campaign to acquire Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red has surpassed 80% of its £3.8m target within one month, following a £1.89m grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and significant public support.
The Hepworth Wakefield and Art Fund are leading the urgent acquisition effort to prevent the 1943 sculpture from leaving the UK under a temporary export bar. The remaining £750,000 must be secured by 27 August 2025.
Art Fund has pledged £750,000 towards the acquisition, `nx more than 1,300 members of the public have contributed donations ranging from £3 to six-figure sums. The sculpture would go on permanent public display at The Hepworth Wakefield if the campaign succeeds.
£3.8m appeal hopes to acquire ‘missing piece’ of Yorkshire museum
The work on sale represents one of Hepworth’s earliest stringed sculptures, and was created during the Second World War. It is one of only a handful of carvings made by Hepworth during the 1940s and features the only multi-coloured strings in her body of work.
Hepworth made the sculpture in 1943 after moving to St Ives, Cornwall, where she was granted a special permit to use wood for sculpting. The sculpture is currently in private ownership and rarely seen by the public. The UK Government placed it under a temporary export bar to provide UK museums with an acquisition opportunity.
Helen Featherstone at The National Lottery Heritage Fund said “this beautiful sculpture would take pride of place in this fantastic civic gallery and allow people to get closer to the exceptional heritage of one of the UK’s seminal sculptors in her hometown.”
The campaign has attracted support from artists and creatives including Jonathan Anderson, Richard Deacon, Jenny Éclair, Sir Antony Gormley, Katy Hessel, Sir Anish Kapoor, Veronica Ryan, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread.
