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Join us for a roundtable discussion to accompany the major exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, The Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen Exhibition: Hepworth in Colour. Dr Alexandra Gerstein will be joined by Dr Stephen Feeke, Tessa Jackson and Jo Volley to discuss the theme of colour in the work of the sculptor Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975).
Barbara Hepworth (1903 –1975) is best known for her abstract sculptural forms inspired by nature and the coastal landscapes of Cornwall, where she lived and worked from 1939.
This ambitious exhibition is the first to explore a less familiar aspect of her work, the artist’s lifelong fascination with colour, which she used in highly original and unexpected ways. The exhibition unites for the first time her early innovative sculptures with colour of the 1940s, displayed alongside the most important drawings from that decade, and will include major examples of her work with colour from the 1950s and 1960s.
The Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen Exhibition: Hepworth in Colour provides an exciting and unique opportunity to discover the vital and expressive role of colour in Hepworth’s sculpture, offering a fresh way of understanding one of the most remarkable artists of the 20th century.
This event is organised by Dr Alexandra Gerstein, Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Courtauld Gallery.
With contributions from:
Dr Alexandra Gerstein is Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Courtauld Gallery and is the co-curator of Hepworth in Colour at the Courtauld Gallery.
Stephen Feeke is an independent curator and art historian. He was previously a curator at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds and then Artistic Director at the New Art Centre, Roche Court, before embarking on a PhD on Barbara Hepworth’s bronzes at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2019. He is author of numerous published texts, mostly on sculpture, and co-authored the catalogue for Barbara Hepworth at the Rijksmuseum. He is currently managing a public realm project at Paddington Square, London and is co-curator of Hepworth in Colour at the Courtauld Gallery
Jo Volley is an artist and academic at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL where she is coordinator of the Material Research Project & Network. As part of her role, along with colleagues, she has developed a substantial pigment collection of over 1,000 samples for research and teaching purposes. In 2019, she established Colour & Poetry: A Symposium, a cross-disciplinary international 2-day event in celebration of International Colour Day, World Poetry Day and since 2020, World Pigment Day, which she co-founded with Dr. Ruth Siddall. In 2020, she initiated The Pigment Farm project to propagate plants that explore the world of natural dyes and pigments.
Tessa Jackson has 35 years of experience as a conservator. Between 1994 and 2017, she worked at Tate and established her own conservation and consultancy practice in Surrey. During her time at Tate, Tessa was involved in the conservation and restoration of some of the most significant sculptures of the twentieth century, including Jacob and the Angel by Jacob Epstein, The Kiss by Auguste Rodin, Recumbent Figure by Henry Moore, and the sculptures of Barbara Hepworth in the St Ives Sculpture Garden.
Tessa enjoys working across a wide range of materials and mixed-media artworks, including Hepworth’s bronzes incorporating string, concrete works by Donald Judd and Peter László Péri, and plastics ranging from foam to silicone, including works by Naum Gabo. She has developed particular expertise in the conservation and restoration of pristine surfaces and regularly collaborates with specialist practitioners to achieve highly specific, bespoke finishes. Tessa has lectured widely and contributed to influential publications in the field of sculpture conservation.