St Ives Harbour
The seaside town of St Ives is found at the far end of the county of Cornwall, United Kingdom. For centuries, fishing and tin mining were the only industries in the village, but with the coming of the railway in 1877, the town became a haven for escapist artists.
St Ives Arts Club
The St Ives Arts Club has been battered by the winds and waves since its founding in 1890. Originally membership was restricted to professional artists, musicians and authors, but today, photographers, comedians, and keen amateurs can join.
Leach Pottery
In 1920, the ceramicists Bernard Leach and Shōji Hamada moved to St Ives and set up a kiln in this house. The pair had been influential in the Japanese arts & crafts movement, and sought to bring the mingei principles of simplicity, functionality, and honesty to Britain.
Bernard Leach, Hamada Shoji, Kawakami Sadao and Yoshida Shōya at the tearoom of the Amida-dō hall, Folk crafts of Tottori prefectureTottori Prefectural Government
Bernard Leach and Shōji Hamada with Sada Kawakami and Shoya Yoshida
Alfred Wallis' Cottage
In 1928, sculptor Ben Nicholson and painter Christopher Wood visited the village and met local mariner and amateur artist Alfred Wallis, whose unschooled, naive style of painting with miscellaneous materials influenced the pair greatly.
St Ives (c.1928) by Alfred WallisTate Britain
Wallis would often use whatever materials he had to hand: scraps of driftwood, ship paint, or old cardboard boxes. Nicholson that his art was, "something that has grown out of the Cornish seas and earth and which will endure".
In 1939, with an artists' colony established and the Second World War breaking out, Nicholson moved permanently to the town with his wife, the sculptor Barbara Hepworth. The group was soon joined by Russian constructivist Naum Gabo.
Trewyn Studio
Hepworth acquired Trewyn Studio in the centre of St Ives in September 1949 and immediately began working there. She said that "Finding Trewyn Studio was sort of magic. Here was a studio, a yard, and garden where I could work in open air and space."
Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden
After her death in 1975, Trewyn Studio and its gardens were turned into a public museum. It remains largely as it looked during Hepworth's life, filled with wood and bronze sculptures as well as her tools.
Dual Form
Hepworth's sculptures can be seen in many of Britain's public spaces and, of course, St Ives has its own. Her 1965 bronze sculpture Dual Form stands in front of the town's guildhall.
Porthmeor Studios
These studios were used by many of the internationally significant artists who made St Ives their home, including Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron, Francis Bacon, and Wilhelmina Barns Graham.
Troika Pottery
Between 1962 and 1970, the Troika Pottery, founded by Leslie Illsley, Jan Thompson, and Benny Sirota, worked here. They contrasted their work to Leach's studio pottery, emphasising form and decoration, seeing ceramics are pure art rather than functional objects.
Tate St Ives
In 1993, the Tate St Ives Gallery opened to the public, exhibiting the work of modern and contemporary British artists, especially those who've worked in Cornwall.
Barbara Hepworth at the Palais de Danse, 1961 (1961) by Rosemary MathewsThe Hepworth Wakefield
Discover more about Barbara Hepworth here.
