Self-portrait As Sad Reinhardt, oil on linen, 471⁄4x391⁄2in (120x100cm). The abstract-formalist idea is, essentially, reductive: what can I get rid of (narrative, meaning, colour, form etc) in a painting or sculpture without it losing visual interest? I have always had the opposite inclination myself
Regular readers might remember my fixation on the recent phenomenon of ‘starchitect’- designed art galleries, dropped like alien motherships onto towns and cities in the UK in the last few years. I visited the Hepworth in Wakefield recently. My local version of this is the Turner Contemporary in Margate, and there was something oddly familiar about the Hepworth – both were designed by David Chipperfield. Full marks to me for brand recognition! Unlike the Turner, and this is crucial, the Hepworth has a permanent collection, which is the studio contents and some choice pieces from the estate of Barbara Hepworth. I suppose that having a large gallery dedicated to your work by a public authority and not just an obsessive and wealthy fan is probably one of the best indications of continued high public esteem.
Barbara certainly didn’t suffer from low self-esteem herself, judging by the photographs and quotations. There’s a selection of her library on show in the gallery, and there’s a lot of stuff about geometry, crystal formation, form in general, some things on Christian science, and some contemporary poetry. She was, in short, a typical modernist: for her, art was an exploration and elaboration of pure form. That’s all. Apart from the hospital drawings, after her early carving stuff it’s all about how elementary forms interact. Abstract and formal. There’s not a trace of self-doubt in this work.