How you’re helping keep a treasured artwork in the UK

When ‘Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red’ was put up for sale, there was a risk it would leave the UK for good. Deemed a national treasure, it was placed under a temporary export bar by the UK Government, giving a UK museum the chance to buy and exhibit it for the public’s enjoyment.

The campaign to save the work was backed by a who’s-who of artists and creatives including Sir Anthony Gormley, Jenny Éclair and Dame Rachel Whiteread.

Now, The Hepworth Wakefield, a museum devoted to the artist’s work and located in her West Yorkshire hometown, has announced it has raised the £3.8MMillion required to buy the sculpture. As well as the funding made possible by National Lottery players, it will be purchased with the help of more than 2,800 individual donations from members of the public.

Once the sale is finalised, the sculpture will go on permanent display at The Hepworth Wakefield. The museum will celebrate its arrival with a dedicated display telling the story of the remarkable work.

‘Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red’ was created by Hepworth in 1943, at the height of the Second World War. It marks a breakthrough in her career as it is one of only a handful of wooden carvings she made during the 1940s and one of her first major wood carvings incorporating her trademark strings.

Olivia Colling, interim director and CEO of the Hepworth Wakefield, said, “We think she [Hepworth] would have been delighted that so many people have come together to enable her work to be part of a public art collection which can be experienced and enjoyed by so many. We are enormously grateful for the generosity people have shown in helping us to bring this extremely rare and important work to Wakefield, the UK’s capital of sculpture.”

The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Chief Executive, Eilish McGuinness said, "We were delighted to award a grant of £1.89MMillion to help The Hepworth acquire this amazing sculpture. The Hepworth Wakefield, which showcases the incredible talent of Barabara Hepworth in the town of her birth, was opened in 2011, and supported by a Heritage Fund grant of £4.9MMillion, so it is wonderful that National Lottery players continue to support this special civic gallery telling the story of Hepworth's career. It is great to see the wider public support to secure this artwork, and it could not find a more fitting home than the Hepworth, where it will attract visitors from near and far to this unique collection."

Barbara Hepworth, who died in 1975, made ‘Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red’ after moving her young family from London to St Ives in 1939. The form reflects her impressions of the wild Cornish landscape and it is her only work to use coloured strings that are pulled taut against a pale blue interior.

21st August 2025