Barbara Hepworth: Aegean Suite Portfolio of Prints

Barbara Hepworth made a number of print portfolios between 1969 and 1971 using screenprint and lithograph techniques. She explained how she used these processes to work on ideas which would eventually translate into sculpture, achieving an abstract sense of space, form and texture through the use of transparent smooth layers and bold mark-making.

Two sets of lithographs were produced with the Curwen Press, London. This included the series The Aegean Suite (1971) which developed Hepworth’s fascination with Greece and made links between geometric forms and sites associated with ancient Greek culture. Like many of her other graphic works on paper, the works also deal with celestial subject matter and include abstract representations of the sun and moon.

The Hepworth Wakefield holds the entire set of graphic works on paper by Barbara Hepworth, thanks to the Hepworth Family Gift made through the Art Fund and the support of the Friends of Wakefield Museums and Art Galleries.

The Hepworth Wakefield presents this portfolio of reproduction prints from The Aegean Suite in celebration of the gallery’s 10th anniversary in May 2021.

Nine reproduction prints are beautifully presented in a black portfolio box. This portfolio also includes an 8 paged paperback facsimile with an introductory essay and details for each print.

Cool Moon, 1971
Delos, 1971
Desert Forms, 1971
Sun and Marble, 1971
Sun and Water, 1971
Itea, 1971
Fragment, 1971
Sun Setting, 1971
Olympus, 1971

Materials: Giclée reproduction prints on Somerset Enhanced 100% cotton rag paper with hand-finished edges. 
Dimensions: Portfolio measures 443 x 317 x 35 mm. Prints each measure 420 x 300 mm.

All prints are unframed. Printed in the UK.

Wakefield Permanent Art Collection. ©Bowness (photograph: Jerry Hardman-Jones)
Reprinted with kind permission of Stanley Jones and the Curwen Print Study Centre.