Barbara Hepworth’s radical use of colour is finally getting its own exhibition

Barbara Hepworth’s lifelong fascination with colour — a little-known aspect of her work — will be the subject of a new exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery in London in June 2026.

Hepworth in Colour will be the very first exhibition to examine how the famous British artist used colour in her work, which was often in highly original and unexpected ways.

A landmark Hepworth exhibition

In a landmark move, the show will unite for the first time her early innovative sculptures with colour of the 1940s.

This extraordinary group of wood and stone carvings feature vivid blues and yellows painted into hollows and onto curves. They will be united in London from public and private collections from across the world, including as far afield as Australia and Hong Kong.

Barbara Hepworth, Eidos, 1947. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. © Bowness. Photo: Predrag Cancar / NGV. Image courtesy National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

The colourful carvings will be seen alongside Hepworth’s most important drawings from the same period, as well as major later examples of her work with colour from the 1950s and 1960s. In these decades, her use of colour transformed into painterly bronze surfaces and striking coloured marbles.

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While the exhibition will be a huge event for art lovers, Courtauld Gallery curators are making clear not to expect a sprawling blockbuster-esque exhibition. Hepworth in Colour is being described as “focused” and “research-driven.”

In total there’ll be around 20 sculptures and 30 exceptional drawings on display. While it may be small, it will be an eye-opening dialogue between Hepworth’s sculpture and her painted and graphic works.

Studio life with Ben Nicholson

But the Courtauld — which is based in London’s Somerset House — isn’t stopping there with their celebration of Barbara Hepworth in 2026.

Running alongside the exhibition will be a display of remarkable photographs of her London studio which she shared with her artist husband Ben Nicholson.

Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson’s studio, London, 1933. Image courtesy The De Laszlo Collection of Paul Laib Negatives, Courtauld Institute of Art. Supplied under a CCBYNC license

The photographs — which are held in the Courtauld’s Conway Library — are among the most evocative and iconic studio images taken in Britain during the 20th century. They offer a unique snapshot of their shared space in Hampstead in 1933, showing how it was populated with sculptures, paintings and prints, arranged side-by-side with carving tools, plants and other studio objects.

The Hepworth displays are some of the highlights of the Courtauld’s extensive 2026 exhibition programme. Their other shows include the first ever exhibition dedicated to the seascapes of the major French Post-Impressionist artist Georges Seurat, and Europe’s first solo-exhibition of the acclaimed Pakistani-American figurative painter Salman Toor.

Hepworth in Colour runs at the Courtauld Gallery in London from 12 June to 06 September 2026