The focus of this small display in the Artists House is Barbara Hepworth’s great interest in theatre, music and dance. These art forms provided inspiration for the rhythm, movement and space which we often find in her sculpture. More directly, they also led to her involvement in a play and an opera during the 1950s and a connection with the campaign to rebuild the Globe Theatre on the Southbank. In 1951 Hepworth created designs for a new production of Sophocles’ Electra at the Old Vic. Her contribution included a sculpture (BH 167) made from painted steel rods and which depicted the god Apollo in abstract form. In the original theatrical photographs, the sculpture looks at once three dimensional and linear; the rods define volume, yet have a graphic quality. Hepworth subsequently visited Greece for herself in 1954, which inspired a number of later sculptures. The trip also gave a confidence and authenticity to her designs for the first production of Michael Tippett’s T
