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Before I start carving the idea must be almost complete. I say 'almost' because the really important thing seems to be the sculptor's ability to let his intuition guide him over the gap between conception and realization without compromising the integrity of the original idea; the point being that the material has vitality – it resists and makes demands..

— Barbara Hepworth The Studio 132:643 (1946)

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More quotes by Barbara Hepworth

Sculpture, to me, is primitive, religious, passionate, and magical.

It is easy now to communicate with people through abstraction, and particularly so in sculpture. Since the whole body reacts to its presence, people become themselves a living part of the whole.

Interview in The Studio (1962)

He [Giovanni Ardini, Italian master-carver] opened up a new vista for me of the quality of form, light, and colour contained in the Mediterranean conception of carving.

The naturalness of life... the sense of community is, I think, a very important factor in an artist's life.

Light and space ... are the sculptor's materials as much as wood or stone ... I feel that I can relate my work more easily, in the open air, to the climate and the landscape.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Barbara Hepworth (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.