Earlier this month we took in the Barbara Hepworth Exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Modern Two, Edinburgh.

The Exhibition is entitled Barbara Hepworth, Art and Life and is open till 2/10/2022.

As well as sculpture, for which Hepworth is most famous, there are some of her paintings on display. In the first room this one reminded me of Mondrian:-

Photograph of Contrapuntal Forms, a Hepworth sculpture displayed at the Festival of Britain’s South Bank site in London. Part of the Skylon can be seen in the background:-

Room 2 had more early paintings. Apologies for the picture quality. I didn’t use flash as I assumed it wouldn’t be allowed:-

These watercolours are very good:-

Also in room 2, some typical Hepworth sculptures:-

The leftmost one above, Dyad, caught the good lady’s eye:-

During World War 2 Hepworth’s access to sculptural materials was limited. This is one of the sketches she made as preparation for a sculpture:-

She even designed textiles:-

An ovoid sculpture with her characteristic smooth curves and voids:-

A more traditional sculpture but still with her distinctive curves:-

Orpheus. An example of her use of strings. (See also background of Dyad, above):-

Thsi one seems to be very similar to one I photographed outside the Pier Art Centre, Stromness, a few weeks before:-

In Stromness:-

Photograph of Winged Figure, John Lewis, London:-

Photograph of Hepworth beside one of her sculptures:-

Further to my post on Abbotsford, Walter Scott must be one of the few writers to have such a legacy, which I mentioned here.

In the section of the new V&A Dundee (posts passim) devoted to Scottish design there is a model of the Scott Monument the original of which stands in Princes Street, Edinburgh.

Model of Scott Monument:-

There is also a Robert Adam chimneypiece:-

Some Arts & Crafts furniture:-

A brooch designed to resemble a galaxy:-

A poster for the Festival of Britain‘s Industrial Light and Power Exhibition at the Kelvin Hall Glasgow:-

And a bookcase/cabinet by George Logan:-

We passed through Knutsford on our way down south last year and it was only then that it struck us – when we saw an allusion to it on a building that it was named after Cnut Sveinsson aka King Canute or Cnut the Great, he who famously did not hold back the waves though it seems he was proving to sycophantic courtiers that he could not do that rather than attempting to show that he could.

We thought we’d stop for a look on our way back up this year.

This building had deco aspects in the rounded elements:-

And on the right here was the one next door:-

Tesla had deco styling on the pillar, canopy and roofline:-

Detailing:-

One of my interests is the Festival of Britain so I found this plaque worthy of note:-

Knutsford is a typical English town with quite narrow streets. I don’t know why the bunting was out:-