Goldsworthy, Andy

Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature

Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy uses a seemingly infinite array of purely natural materials, from snow and ice to leaves, stone, and twigs in the creation of his one-of-a-kind sculptures. Unlike such artists as Christo and Michael Hiezer, whose works leave definite marks on the landscape, Goldsworthy's approach is to interrupt, shape, or in some other way temporarily alter or work with nature to produce his fragile, mutable pieces. To create "Broken Icicle," for example, Goldsworthy was only able to work on the sculpture in the early morning, when temperatures were below freezing. As with most of his works, ultimately, the materials used to create this piece returned to their natural state, leaving no trace of the artwork's existence save for the stunning photos in this book.

Passage

To achieve the quiet beauty of his art, Andy Goldsworthy spends long hours in rough weather, engaged in a tug-of-war with nature. He wrestles heavy stones on top of one another to form tall, egg-shaped landmarks known as cairns. He painstakingly covers fallen logs with bright golden bands of Dutch elm leaves—a last hurrah for a proud species decimated by disease. He pulverizes white chalk to lay a long, wandering path in the woods that gleams in the moonlight. Works like these are as much about the transience of life as they are about a sense of place and the pleasures of color, light and form. In Passage, the British artist's latest book, he once again provides diary excerpts that chronicle his daily successes and failures. The lush color photographs he takes to document peak moments of the birth, glory and decay of his art are as beautiful as ever. Unlike the other books, however, Passage--which begins in 2000 and darts back and forth over the next few years--is shadowed by a more urgent sense of mortality. Goldworthy's recently deceased father is in his thoughts, and a major project he tackles is the memorial Garden of Stones for the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. The garden's giant boulders pose many difficulties--finding the right ones, acquiring them, moving them, experimenting with cutting processes and coping with the elderly stonecutter's frequent tantrums. Hollowed out, the stones will be filled with trowels of earth (a ritual recalling burial) and tiny oak saplings, symbolic of life. "The partnership between tree and stone will be stronger for the tree having grown from the stone, rather than being stuck into it," Goldsworthy writes in his straightforward style. (An essay about this project by the historian Simon Schama, previously published in The New Yorker, is one of several pieces by other writers included in the book.) Once again, Goldsworthy succeeds in showing how seemingly simple ideas and actions can deeply engage both natural forces and human emotions. —Cathy Curtis

Andy Goldsworthy's Passage focuses on the journeys that people, rivers, landscapes, and even stones take through space and time. A cairn made by the renowned sculptor in the Scottish village where he lives reveals the influence that his work close to home has on projects he creates elsewhere. A series involving elm trees, from glowing yellow leaves to dead branches, exemplifies his work's vigorous beauty as well as its association with death and decay. Creations on the beach and in rivers explore the passage of time, while a white chalk path investigates the passing from day into night.

Passage also includes the Garden of Stones, a Holocaust memorial at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, where the artist planted 18 oak trees through holes in hollowed-out, earth-filled boulders. Documenting these and other recent works, this beautiful book is an eloquent testament to Goldsworthy's determination to deepen his understanding of the world around him, and his relationship with it, through his art. AUTHOR BIO: Andy Goldsworthy's work is regularly exhibited in Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and elsewhere. Although commissions take him all over the world, the landscape around his home in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, remains at the heart of his work. Goldsworthy's best-selling books for Abrams include A Collaboration with Nature, Time, Stone, Wall, and Wood. Terry Friedman is an architectural historian and former principal keeper of Leeds City Art Gallery and Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture in Leeds, England. He curated the first major retrospective of Goldsworthy's work, in 1990.

Enclosure

Since 1995, Andy Goldsworthy has created a series of artworks in Northwest England in sheepfolds: stone enclosures found across the countryside that have been used for assembling, sheltering, and washing sheep for hundreds of years. After working on and off for more than a decade, he completed thirty-five folds, often rebuilding them in the process; many of them can now once again serve their intended purpose. These form the core of Enclosure: they reflect Goldsworthy’s lifelong interest in the land, its history, and the people who work on it. They are accompanied by a rich collection of ephemeral work related in various ways to sheep, including a spectacular series of large sheep paintings—paintings made by the hoof-prints of sheep.

Enclosure, which joins the sublime tradition of the art and literature of the landscape of the British Isles, is an exciting addition to the series of eight bestselling books that Goldsworthy has already produced for Abrams.

Wood

Stone

Hand to Earth

Now available in paperback, this retrospective book covering the work of Andy Goldsworthy from 1976 to 1990 remains one of the most comprehensive publications on the acclaimed artist. With nearly 200 illustrations featuring early examples of his ephemeral works made of leaves, stalks, sand, and snow, Hand to Earth offers fascinating insights into the ways in which Goldsworthy creates his unique and highly personal artworks. AUTHOR BIO:

Time

Whether measured in minutes or eons, time is a good friend of British artist Andy Goldsworthy's. He spends long, solitary days outdoors in all kinds of weather, doing things like piecing together many, many yellow leaves to create a brilliant band of color at a river's edge in upstate New York or stacking small pieces of ice on the Nova Scotia coast to build a sculpture in the compact shape of an ancient stone monument. Threatened by a strong gust of wind, the incoming tide, or a sudden rise in temperature, these are fugitive works comfortably in synch with the natural rhythms of growth and decay.

Other works of his are longer-lasting. In walls made of stacked stones with hollowed-out oval "chambers" the size of his body--which he began building in 1999 in Lancashire, England--Goldsworthy makes reference not only to the shapes of graves in a nearby church but also to his personal history in the region and the enduring qualities of a rugged landscape.

Goldsworthy is the rare artist who can describe what he does in simple, concrete terms that nonetheless reveal his larger vision. Time is a very satisfying collection of 500 photographs, nearly all taken by him, that document the creation and subsequent mutations of his work. These evocative images are illuminated by excerpts from the diaries he kept as he created five projects in Europe and North America in the '90s. He discusses what it's like to explore an unfamiliar landscape, assess how the elements will work for and against him, and perform what are essentially a set of experiments. Success means making work that is, as he writes, "completely welded to its site." --Cathy Curtis

In his first major book in four years, internationally acclaimed artist Andy Goldsworthy presents a wealth of new work informed by the passage of time. Goldsworthy, who works with stone, leaves, grass, branches, snow, and other natural materials to create intensely personal artworks, uses time almost as a medium in his art: on a snow-covered Scottish hillside a huge rectangle of compacted snow becomes ever more visible as the surrounding snow melts away; clay walls dry out and crack, revealing previously invisible forms embedded within them; a sculpture of re-formed icicles is made to catch the morning sunshine. In the spectacular color photographs seen here, Goldsworthy celebrates the many ways his art is about, or evokes, the passage of time.

Presenting exciting works not seen in previous books, along with revealing excerpts from Goldsworthy's working diaries, this perceptive overview-which includes an extensive illustrated chronology by Terry Friedman-will become the definitive reference on Goldsworthy's art.

ANDY GOLDSWORTHY's books include Abrams' Stone, Wood, Arch, Wall, Hand to Earth, and Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature. His work is regularly exhibited in Britain, France, Japan, and the United States. This new book comes in the same year that his first permanent installation in an American museum, at Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York, has its official unveiling. Goldsworthy lives with his family in Scotland.

TERRY FRIEDMAN is an architectural historian who curated the first major retrospective of Goldsworthy's work.

"Movement, change, light, growth, and decay are the life-blood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work." -Andy Goldsworthy

More than 250 photographs in full color, 111/2 x 10"

Wall

British artist Andy Goldsworthy, known for creating art outdoors and from natural materials, has now built a 2,278-foot stone wall at Storm King Art Center, a sculpture park on the Hudson River in Mountainville, New York. This sensitive and detailed response to the land-former farmland in an area once rich in stone walls-is one of his most impressive and important permanent artworks. This new work starts by closely following the foundations of an old, dilapidated wall and then makes a series of increasingly voluptuous arabesques before plunging down into a lake. It rises again on the other side and heads straight up a grassy slope to stop dead at a major highway. The book's stunning color photographs show the wall from every vantage point and in all four seasons, as well as documenting ephemeral work made around it. Kenneth Baker's essay considers the Storm King wall in the context of Goldsworthy's other work. The book accompanies an exhibition at Storm King that opens in May 2000.

More than 60 photographs in full color, 9 1/2 x 10 1/2"

ANDY GOLDSWORTHY was born in 1956 in Cheshire, England. His work is regularly exhibited in Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and elsewhere. Although commissions take him all over the world, the landscape around his home in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, remains at the heart of his work. His previous books include Abrams' Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature, Hand to Earth, Stone, Wood, and Arch. JERRY L. THOMPSON is a highly regarded photographer who has contributed to a number of books, including Abrams' Mark di Suvero. KENNETH BAKER is art critic of the San Francisco Chronicle.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York May-November 2000

The Art of Andy Goldsworthy: Complete Works: Special Edition (Sculptors)

A new, special edition of the study of the contemporary British sculptor, Andy Goldsworthy, including a new introduction, new bibliography and many new illustrations. This is the most comprehensive, up-to-date, well-researched and in-depth account of Goldsworthy's art available anywhere. Andy Goldsworthy makes land art. His sculpture is a sensitive, intuitive response to nature, light, time, growth, the seasons and the earth. Goldsworthy's environmental art is becoming ever more popular: 1993's art book Stone was a bestseller; the press raved about Goldsworthy taking over a number of London West End art galleries in 1994; during 1995 Goldsworthy designed a set of Royal Mail stamps and had a show at the British Museum. Malpas surveys all of Goldsworthy's art, and analyzes his relation with other land artists such as Robert Smithson, Walter de Maria, Richard Long and David Nash, and his place in the contemporary British art scene. The Art of Andy Goldsworthy discusses all of Goldsworthy's important and recent exhibitions and books, including the Sheepfolds project; the Channel Four documentaries; Passage (2004); the Holocaust memorial in New York (2003); and Goldsworthy's collaboration on a dance performance.

Arch

Tour the English countryside with artist Andy Goldsworthy and writer David Craig, as they trace an ancient drover's route from the sheep pastures of Thornhill, Scotland, to the old market town of Kirkby Lonsdale, England. Goldsworthy, whose natural sculptures are often made up of collections of carefully arranged rocks, has created a self-supporting arch that is assembled with about 30 stones and no mortar. As he and Craig travel the British countryside, they set up and photograph the red sandstone arch in a wide variety of locations. Some sites have changed little over the centuries--on a number of occasions they erect the sculpture in original sheep folds (corrals). In other cases, the arch marks the changing landscape, as in Shap, Cumbria, where it was assembled on a sidewalk across from a relatively new school building.

Documenting this exploration, Arch includes 35 beautiful photographs as well as a poetic day journal written by Craig describing the journey. Looking at the different sites where the arch stood and reading Craig's insight into the geography and history of the land provides a unique opportunity for readers to experience Goldsworthy's work and England's natural history in one sitting. --Loren E. Baldwin