Barbara Hepworth

Barbara Hepworth was a towering titan of 20th-century sculpture. After studying at the Leeds School of Art with Henry Moore and in Florence, she settled in London and later St Ives, Cornwall. In 1932, Hepworth made a historic breakthrough by piercing a hole clean through a carved wooden sculpture, integrating negative space, light, and interior void into the sculptured mass.

Her works seamlessly synthesize human anatomy, geological sea-cliffs, and spiritual harmony, frequently strung with taut strings or brass wire like musical instruments. Her colossal bronze 'Single Form' (1964) stands permanently outside the United Nations Secretariat in New York as a memorial to Dag Hammarskjöld.