Study Task 5 - Exhibit

The Hepworth - Wakefield 

I visited The Hepworth in Wakefield which was holding multiple exhibitions at the time such as György Gordon and Anthea Hamilton. The gallery’s exterior is minimalistic with sharp corners and grey tones, inspired by brutalist architecture. This might make the building not look too appealing for most. However, the inside of the building is clean and spacious with large windows bringing in lots of natural light. There is a variation of work in the gallery, sculptures, paintings, drawings and installations. I found the work of György Gordon to be the most interesting as it showed his larger, finished pieces as well as his rougher sketchbook pages to show the process of his work. The exhibition shows themes of solitude which is clear in the life of the artist and has been represented in the work as it contains a lot of dark imagery of himself as well as paintings of his mother whilst she was on her death bed. During my time at The Hepworth I also looked at other work in the gallery such as E.Q. Nicholson where I noticed the piece ‘Still Life with Sugar Basin’. This piece interested me because of the use of mixed media (pencil, crayon and ink) to make the objects appear translucent rather than completely overlapping each other and cancelling each other out. The wonkiness of the objects caught my eye as it shows how the artist has made the work from observation which is something I need to practice more of myself. As a whole The Hepworth is an interesting, well-rounded gallery which contains various different pieces of work from multiple artists with extensive, accessible exhibitions (no extra cost) which are constantly changing. The only downfall of my visit to The Hepworth was that the JW Anderson exhibition was still being put together ready for opening which could have been enjoyable. I intend on going back to The Hepworth as the experience as a whole was enjoyable, the space is open and relaxing with plenty of seating to view the work properly, as well as it being free and easily accessed from Leeds by train or bus.