Wakefield's Collection

Wakefield’s art collection consists of over 5,000 works. At the core of the collection is a
significant group of work by modern British artists including, most notably, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore who were both born in the Wakefield district.

From its foundation in 1923, the original Wakefield Art Gallery adopted an ambitious collecting policy with a core aim to nurture an understanding of contemporary art. Works by the leading artists of the time, who have become synonymous with shaping Modern British art, were collected. Works in the collection include Hepworth’s Mother and Child (1934) and Moore’s Reclining Figure (1936) from an important period in the history of British art, during which many artists such as Ivon Hitchens, Paul Nash, Victor Pasmore and John Piper began to experiment with abstraction.

Other leading British artists are also represented in the collection, including: David Bomberg, Roger Fry, Harold Gilman, Duncan Grant, Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron, Lucie Rie and William Scott.

NATIONAL COLLECTIONS ON LOAN

The permanent collection displays are supplemented by loans from the national collections of The Arts Council, The British Council and Tate. These works relate some of the key moments in 20th century British art and a regularly changing programme of displays. The works on loan include The Snowstorm: Spiral Motif in Black and White by Victor Pasmore, 1950-51 from the Arts Council Collection; 1935 (white relief) by Ben Nicholson from the British Council Collection.