Andy Goldsworthy
- Artist: Andy Goldsworthy
- Published: 1990
- Publisher: Viking, London
- Edition: First
- Format: Hardback
- Height: 31cm
- Pages: 120
- Illustrations: Illustrated throughout.
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Add to basketAndy Goldsworthy
The many-pointed star formed from large icicles balances on a rock in a quiet Dumfriesshire valley, a delicate bamboo screen stands on a Japanese beach, a great serpentine ridge of earth extends along a disused railway cutting on Tyneside, four massive snow rings mark the position of the North Pole. The creator of these extraordinary pieces of art is Andy Goldsworthy, who for the last fourteen years has worked almost exclusively with the materials he finds in the outdoor environment. Snow, ice, maple leaves, dandelion heads, twigs, pebbles - wherever he is, Andy Goldsworthy uses whatever happens to be around him. Most of his work is ephemeral and he records his creations in fine colour photographs, many of which have accompanying texts that form an integral part of the work. The artists intention is not to "make his mark" on the landscape, but to work with it instinctively, so that his creations manifest, however fleetingly, a sympathetic contact with the natural world.
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Artists Biography
Andy Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire in 1956 and was brought up in Yorkshire. He studied at Bradford College (1974-75) and Preston Polytechnic (1975-78).
After leaving college Goldsworthy lived in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. He moved over the border to Langholm, Dumfriesshire, in 1985 and to Penpont one year later. This gradual drift northwards was due to a way of life over which he did not have complete control. However, contributing factors were opportunities and desires to work in these areas and reasons of economy.
Throughout his career most of Goldsworthy's work has been made in the open air, in places as diverse as the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District, Grize Fiord in the Northern Territories of Canada, the North Pole, Japan, the Australian outback, St Louis, Missouri and Dumfriesshire. The materials he uses are those to hand in the remote locations he visits: twigs, leaves, stones, snow and ice, reeds and thorns. Most works are ephemeral but demonstrate, in their short life, Goldsworthy's extraordinary sense of play and of place. The works are recorded as photographs. Book publication is an important aspect of Andy Goldsworthy's work: showing all aspects of the production of a given work, each publication is a work of art in its own right.
Some recent sculpture has a more permanent nature, being made in stone and placed in locations far from its point of origin, as for example Herd of Arches 1994. The series of chalk Arches made at Sculpture at Goodwood in 1995 are semi-permanent, given the fragility of the material, and are now sited indoors at Goldsworthy's studio in Dumfriesshire, to extend their life.
