A pictorial record of the sculptor Barbara Hepworth's life, work and writings over 40 years, from childhood to her marriages to the sculptor John Skeaping and to Ben Nicholson, and from figuration through geometric and organic abstraction to the grandeur of her large-scale, post-war work.
Looking to Sea is an alternative history of Britain in the twentieth century, told through the prism of ten iconic artworks of the sea, one for each decade.
Essays by leading experts on Laura Knight cover her early years, the flowering of her work in Cornwall before the First World War, through her portraiture to her later years in London and Malvern.
Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) was one of the greatest British artists of the twentieth century, first coming to international prominence with his famous 'white reliefs' of the 1930s. A pioneer of abstract art in Britain, he played a significant role in the European avantgarde, forming close links with Picasso, Braque, Arp, Mondrian and others.
Alfred Wallis spent most of his life in the Cornish ports of Newlyn, Penzance and St Ives, and went to sea as a young man. His main occupation was as a dealer in marine supplies and he was in his seventies before he took up painting 'for company'. He sold his works for a few pence, and died in the poorhouse.