Art and More in Southwest England: Part 2

The road to ST. IVES was being surfaced with oil and crushed rock, so it was slow going. But we found some Art here too - roadside:

St. Ives was definitely a challenge with its warren of one-way roads and steep hills. But remarkably, after finding a parking space we found the Tate Museum.

Photographs are not allowed at the Tate, so there is no record of this visit. To be honest, there was not very much there and certainly nothing worth taking a picture of, except for the work by Barbara Hepworth. There was, however, one piece by Hepworth that could be shot

Curved Form (Trevalgan) by Barbara Hepworth, 1956

nice view

Afterwards we walked over to where Hepworth lived when she was in St. Ives. Perhaps a little background on her would be in order. Well, she was Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), and we knew of her because her work is in many of the major sculpture collections around the world. Not a scintillating history. First husband was a sculptor, second was a painter. She had triplets with him. Probably her most important work was a memorial to Dag Hammarskjöld in the New York City UN headquarters.

There too, no photos were allowed but, apparently, it was okay to do so in the garden.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES.

We could also get a peek at her studio. She lived in St. Ives from from 1949 until her death in 1975.

St. Ives, as artsy as they would have you believe it is, is just a tourist town filled with touristy shops. But with a view.

Dual Form by Barbara Hepworth, 1965. Given to the town by artist.

A man in St. Ives said that PENZANCE was a dirty town, so we didn’t expect much. What we found. though, was an old town far from its prime, but still looking pretty good.

The Exchange is a place of contemporary Art and community Art activism. Patrick Lowrey did his American Dream show:

And this:

Still in progress:

We walked over to the Penlee House which features the Art of the Newlyn School.

Just a short walk from the center of town, we found the museum surrounded by a very nice neighborhood, nestled in a lovely garden.

The Newlyn School was an art colony based around NEWLYN, a fishing village next to Penzance from the 1880s until the early twentieth century.

Once again, photos were prohibited which is too bad because it was fun. Many of the Newlyn artists were featured. Here are a few that I found:

Golden Youth by Thomas Cooper Gotch

School is Out by Elizabeth Adela Forbes, 1889

Among the Missing by Walter Langley, 1884

The style is Post-Impressionist realism, and not my personal fav, but it was fun to look at. Even more fun was watching the young artists at work (I cheated):

Newlyn artists were also featured in the special exhibit, Poems, Plays, and Fairytales – Newlyn painters inspired by literature. The Penlee is also home to exhibits of archeology and local history.

Like the artists, we moved on to Newlyn to see what the hubbub was about. Well, there wasn’t much to see, but we did find the old museum, which was anything but old on the inside.