An Improbable Odyssey: The Life and Times of Brian Wall - film screening and artist Q&A
Sat 7 Sept, 2-3.30pm, £15.50 / £13 Student / £5 Member – exhibition entry included
Join us for a screening of a new documentary film about Barbara Hepworth’s former assistant, Brian Wall who went on to become a successful sculptor in his own right.
The screening of An Improbable Odyssey: The Life and Times of Brian Wall will be followed by the rare opportunity to hear from Wall who will be in conversation with Dr. Chris Stephens, Director of The Holbourne and author of St Ives: The Art and the Artists.
Produced by Brian Wall Foundation and directed by Peter Stern, the 60-minute documentary was selected by the Palm Springs Architecture Design Art Film Festival, the Venice, California, Fine Arts Film Festival, the Berlin International Art Film Festival, and the Sacramento International Film Festival for 2022. It was a semi-finalist in the FilmArte Film Festival in Berlin and in the Blow-up Arthouse Film Fest in Chicago in 2023.
The Brian Wall Foundation was established in 2014 by Wall to provide financial assistance to working artists and to further research and scholarship in the field of modern sculpture. Awards funded by the Foundation are administered by other non-profit organizations that recognize artistic excellence internationally.
Brian Wall and Barbara Hepworth
Brian Wall was born in London in 1931, and as a child he experienced the London Blitz during World War II before being evacuated to Yorkshire. Following his return to London after the war, he left school while a teenager to work as a glassblower. After serving as an aerial photographer in the Royal Air Force, he began his artistic career as a painter in the early ‘50s.
In 1954 Wall moved to St. Ives, Cornwall, known for its colony of abstract artists including Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron, and Terry Frost. Wall worked as assistant to Barbara Hepworth from 1955 until 1960 and constructed wood reliefs and sculptures painted in primary colors. He returned to London in 1960 and became the Head of Sculpture at the Central School of Art. He remained there until he emigrated to California in 1972, where he has lived ever since.
