The fight to keep a Barbara Hepworth sculpture in the UK

A year ago, Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red was sold at Christie’s to an anonymous overseas bidder. Now, after a significant public campaign, it will remain in the UK – secured for permanent public display at The Hepworth Wakefield.

Created in 1943, the work exemplifies Hepworth’s experimental style during her time in St Ives, Cornwall, where she relocated at the start of the Second World War, at the invitation of art critic Adrian Stokes and his wife, artist Margaret Mellis. Its hollow oval form, approximately 50cm in length, features strings – a motif of Hepworth’s wartime work – stretched across a pale blue interior. It is distinctive for its use of coloured strings, making it a singular piece within the artist’s oeuvre.

The sculpture’s origins are rooted in the challenges of wartime Britain. In November 1940, an incendiary bomb destroyed most of the works in Hepworth’s London studio. She had taken just one piece with her to St Ives: the model for Sculpture with Colour. With traditional materials like marble and quality wood in short supply, Hepworth was forced to work in plaster until receiving a special permit for wood in 1942.

Originally acquired directly from Hepworth in 1944 by collector Helen Sutherland, the piece later passed through the family of art historian Nicolete Gray.

Sculpture with Colour is now recognised as a rare masterpiece of British abstract modernism. Thus, when the work was sold, the UK government implemented a temporary export bar under the Waverley Criteria, giving British institutions a chance to raise the funds to retain it.

The Hepworth Wakefield – a gallery in Hepworth’s birthplace of West Yorkshire – launched a £3.8 million fundraising campaign in partnership with UK-based charity the Art Fund. That goal was met ahead of the deadline of 27 August 2025. The Art Fund contributed £750,000, alongside a £1.89 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and donations from more than 2,800 members of the public. The campaign was also supported by prominent artists and creatives, including Sir Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Richard Deacon, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread.

The sculpture will now go on display at The Hepworth Wakefield, as well as being made available for loan to institutions across the UK – an outcome that Olivia Colling, interim director and CEO at the gallery, has said the artist would be ‘delighted’ with: ‘Hepworth often talked about her need to be part of a community and its proactive development.’