Barbara Hepworth was a British artist. Achieving international acclaim, Hepworth is perhaps best known for her “pierced” Modernist sculpture: constructed using a variety of materials such as alabaster, marble, bronze, wood, and aluminum, Hepworth’s abstractions were often ovular and organic in shape, exploring the shifting contours of the interior and exterior. Born on January 10, 1903 in Yorkshire, England, she began her artistic life by studying at the Leeds School of Art in 1920 and proceeded to graduate from the Royal College of Art in London. Thereafter she enjoyed a period of international travel to Italy, Greece, and France, notably visiting the studios of Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, and Constantin Brancusi. Before and after her death in an accidental fire at her Trewyn studio on May 20, 1975, Hepworth's work achieved wide levels of success. Her work was featured in the British Pavilion of the 1950 Venice Biennale, and she received a commission for Single Form, a monumental sculpture installed at the plaza of the United Nations building in New York. A large-scale retrospective exhibition of her work was held at Tate Britain in London in 2015.