If Not Now, When? Generations of Women in Sculpture in Britain, 1960 – 2022

31 Mar-24 Sep 2023

Overview

This exhibition will present the outcomes of a significant research project, Hepworth’s Progeny, hosted by The Hepworth Wakefield (2021-23) in collaboration with art historian Griselda Pollock and sculptor Lorna Green. The project generated a survey of women across Britain working in sculpture today and a comparative study with the stories of women who responded to a parallel survey issued by Lorna Green in 1988.

If Not Now, When? Generations of Women in Sculture in Britain, 1960 – 2022 will invite audiences to consider issues of gender and time in order to suggest new narratives about sculpture by women in Britain during this period, looking at lives, work and social change. Selected from the nearly 320 artists who responded to the 1988 and 2022 surveys, the exhibition will present work by Phyllida Barlow, Glenys Barton, Helen Chadwick, Kim Lim, Veronica Ryan and Shelagh Wakeley, among many others.

The research is funded by a donation from the Holberg Prize awarded to Professor Griselda Pollock in 2020 for her work in feminist studies in the visual arts and art history, and to foster extended research in this field. The project will be guided by an Advisory Board of Griselda Pollock, Lorna Green, The Hepworth Wakefield’s curator Eleanor Clayton, sculptors Sokari Douglas Camp and Jill McKnight, and independent art historian Dr. Alice Correia.