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.

Using a seemingly endless range of natural materials, Goldsworthy creates sculpture in the open that manifests a sympathetic contact with the natural world. 120 full-color photographs.

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

For British artist Andy Goldsworthy, wood evokes ideas for growth, perpetual change, and transformation. In Wood, he works with leaves, bark, branches, ice, boulders, and sand. The artist's photographs, superbly reproduced here, capture the moment at which each work came alive for him--through a particular quality of light, a precise stage in melting, or the blowing of the wind. 150 color photos.

Stone

Here is an arresting look at art that uses slate, limestone, river boulders, sand, mud and clay--all created by young Scottish artist Goldsworthy. Stone reflects the artist's increasingly strong conviction that the places in which he works are as essential a part of his art as that which he creates. 130 full-color photographs.

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.

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"

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:

The Art of Andy Goldsworthy: Complete Works (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. The hardback edition updates the paperback, and includes the latest information on Goldsworthy. It has been rewritten throughout. This is the most comprehensive, up-to-date, well-researched and in-depth account of Goldsworthy's art available anywhere. A new and up-to-date appraisal of the contemporary British sculptor, Andy Goldsworthy, who makes 'land' or 'earth' 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 earth/ land artists such as Robert Smithson, Walter de Maria, Richard Long and David Nash, and his place in the contemporary British art scene. Andy Goldsworthy is a particularly gentle and sensitive artist: he stitches together leaves to forms lines, often placed in water, or makes circular slabs of snow, or entwines twigs in an arc. He creates a delicate spiral of chestnut leaves, called Autumn Horn; he pins bright yellow dandelions on willowherb stalks in a circle, on bluebells; he makes lines and cairns, like Richard Long, of pebbles; he makes hollow, circular structures, like igloos, from slate, leaves, driftwood and bracken; he makes long wavy ridges in Arizonian desert sand; he makes arches, globes, hollow spheres, slabs, spires, spirals and star-shapes out of snow and ice. Very impressive it all is. The sculptures made of sticks, for instance, stuck together in an arch, or a line, reflected in the mirror-like water of Derwent Water in Cumbria, are indeed wonderful. The sculptures exude tranquillity, an early morning calm. Or the globe made from oak leaves in various states of autumnal decay, superb stuff. Or the globe made out of snow, and perched amidst some young trees, or the slabs of snow, set up in a line with slits cut in them. The Art of Andy Goldsworthy discusses all of Goldsworthy's important and recent exhibitions and books, including the Sheepfolds project; the Channel Four documentaries; Time and Passage; the New York Holocaust memorial (2003); and Goldsworthy's collaboration on a dance performance.

Andy Goldsworthy: Touching Nature: Special Edition (Sculptors S.)

A new and revised edition of our best-selling book on Andy Goldsworthy. A completely rewritten exploration of the sculptor, updated to include recent works such as Night Path (2002) and Chalk Stones (2003) in Sussex, Three Cairns (2002) on the East and West coasts, Stone Houses (2004) and Garden of Stones (2003) in Gotham, Passage (2005) in London, and Slate Domes (2005) in Washington, DC. Andy Goldsworthy makes 'land' or 'earth' art out of, among other materials, stacks of rocks, or stalks tied together, or mud thrown into rivers or poppy petals wrapped around boulders. His art is a sensitive, intuitive response to nature, light, time, growth, the seasons and the earth. Andy Goldsworthy born in Cheshire in 1956. He studied at Harrogate High School, Bradford College of Art and Preston Polytechnic, where he studied on the BA Fine Art course, graduating in 1978. Many of Goldsworthy's site-specific works and commissions have been in the North: the giant maze and Lambton Earthwork (at County Durham, 1988-9), the Grizedale Forest site works (1984 onwards), residencies at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (1987), the Lake District National Park (1988), and so on. Goldsworthy has worked at the Venice Biennale, Grise Fiord and the North Pole, in Japan, Castres and Sidobre in France, and in Haarlem, Holland. He has had one-man shows in France, Japan, Holland and the UK, and participated in groups shows in Italy, Germany, and the USA. A major retrospective, Hand to Earth: Andy Goldsworthy: Sculpture: 1976-1990, was held at the Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture, Leeds City Art Gallery: the show also travelled to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, Stedelijke Musea, Gouda and Centre Regional d'Art Contemporain Midi-Pyrenees in Toulouse. Goldsworthy's work has appeared on TV (in, as expected, Channel Four documentaries, The Late Show, an Arts Council film (Two Autumns), and regional news programmes, as well as a couple of Japanese broadcasts), also the ubiquitous appearances on Radio 4's arts show Kaleidoscope and Radio 3's arts interview slot, Third Ear. A half-hour BBC TV programme on Goldsworthy's Sheepfolds project was aired in 1997; there was also a Sheepfolds exhibition at Michael Hue-Williams Gallery in London. In the 1990s, Goldsworthy's art began to rise in popularity: the glossy coffee table book Stone became a bestseller. In 1994 Goldsworthy took over some West End galleries with a large one-man show. In 1995 he took part in an intriguing group show at the British Museum, creating sculptures, along with Richard Deacon, Peter Randall-Page and others, in amongst the monumental statuary of the famous Egyptian Hall. Also in 1995, Goldsworthy designed a set of Royal Mail stamps. Goldsworthy continues to work in countries such as Japan, Australia, Canada and North America, France, but his home ground of Dumfriesshire in Scotland remains (at) the heart of his work. Malpas surveys all of Goldsworthy's art, and discusses his relation with other earth/ land artists such as Robert Smithson, Walter de Maria, Richard Long and David Nash.

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

Renowned for creating art outdoors from natural materials, British artist Andy Goldsworthy offers an inside look at an intriguing project. Following the route along which sheep were once driven from Scotland to markets in the north of England, he builds, dismantles, and rebuilds along the way a red sandstone arch in a variety of locations. 30 full-color illustrations.