91Èȱ¬

Hepworth loved walking out into the wild Cornish landscape, and even before she moved there in 1939, she was aware of comparisons made between her abstract work and ancient stone megaliths. But how much closer did living in St Ives bring her to this ancient and fiercely independent county? Was this avant-garde artist welcomed, or did she remain an outsider?

Artists Lally MacBeth and Matthew Shaw live in Cornwall and created the Stone Club to celebrate pre-historic sites. Now their passion for dolmans, stone circles and standing stones leads them to reverse the gaze – to look at Hepworth sculptures in the light of ancient sites, comparing her work with the megaliths carved by the hand of sculptors over four thousand years ago.

Hepworth moved to Cornwall, with her second husband Ben Nicholson and four children, to escape the threat of bombing in London. She stayed for the rest of her life, an extraordinary decision for someone who wanted to be recognised internationally. But from this tiny fishing village she made megalithic monuments which would be exported across the world - to the UN in New York, and to London, and Paris.

Lally and Matthew enlist the knowledge and passion of Andy Norfolk, ancient stone expert and Hepworth fan, and James Kitto, photographer and President of CASPN (the Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network), to visit The Merry Maidens and Mên-an-Tol.

They visit the Trewyn Studios in St Ives to look at the tools Barbara Hepworth used to make her sculptures and to talk to Tate Curator of Exhibitions, Katie Norris. They also hear stories of her working practise from acclaimed sculptor Brian Wall, one of her studio assistants back in the 1950s.

Finally, they watch the ceremony for initiating new bards at the Gorsedh Kernow in Callington, seeing close up a ritual that Hepworth herself went through in 1968. Sue Hill, of Wildworks in Redruth, and Kurt Jackson, poet and landscape painter, describe the sensation of being barded and recognised by Cornwall for their passion and their art.

Producer Sara Jane Hall
With musical sourced by Danny Webb.

A Just Radio production for 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3