Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy OBE
Goldsworthy in 2005
Born	(1956-07-25) 25 July 1956 (age 68) Cheshire, England
Known for	Sculpture, photography
Movement	Environmental art, land art
Spouse	Judith Gregson (divorced)
Partner	Tina Fiske
Children	4

Andy Goldsworthy OBE (born 25 July 1956) is an English sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculptures and land art situated in natural and urban settings.

Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire on 25 July 1956, the son of Muriel (née Stanger) and F. Allin Goldsworthy (1929–2001), a former professor of applied mathematics at the University of Leeds.^[1][2] He grew up on the Harrogate side of Leeds. From the age of 13, he worked on farms as a labourer. He has likened the repetitive quality of farm tasks to the routine of making sculpture: "A lot of my work is like picking potatoes; you have to get into the rhythm of it."^[3] He studied fine art at Bradford College of Art from 1974 to 1975 and at Preston Polytechnic (now the University of Central Lancashire) from 1975 to 1978,^[1] receiving his BA from the latter.^{[citation needed]}

After leaving college, Goldsworthy lived in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cumbria.^[4] He moved to Scotland in 1985, first living in Langholm and then settling a year later in Penpont, where he still resides. It has been said that his gradual drift northwards was "due to a way of life over which he did not have complete control", but that contributing factors were opportunities and desires to work in these areas and "reasons of economy".^[4]

In 1993, Goldsworthy received an honorary degree from the University of Bradford. He was an A.D. White Professor-At-Large in Sculpture at Cornell University 2000–2006 and 2006–2008.^[5]

In 2003,^[6] Goldsworthy produced a commissioned work for the entry courtyard of San Francisco's de Young Museum called "Drawn Stone", which echoes San Francisco's frequent earthquakes and their effects. His installation included a giant crack in the pavement that broke off into smaller cracks, and broken limestone, which could be used for benches. The smaller cracks were made with a hammer adding unpredictability to the work as he created it.^[7]

The materials used in Goldsworthy's art often include brightly coloured flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns. He has been quoted as saying, "I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole."^[8]

Rather than interfering in natural processes, his work magnifies existing ones through deliberately minimal intervention in the landscape. Goldsworthy has said "I am reluctant to carve into or break off solid living rock...I feel a difference between large, deep rooted stones and the debris lying at the foot of a cliff, pebbles on a beach...These are loose and unsettled, as if on a journey, and I can work with them in ways I couldn't with a long resting stone."^[9] Goldsworthy's commitment to working with available natural materials injects an inherent scarcity and contingency into the work.^[10]

In contrast to other artists who work with the land, most of Goldsworthy's works are small in scale and temporary in their installation.^[9] For these ephemeral works, Goldsworthy often uses only his bare hands, teeth, and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials. His process reveals a preoccupation with temporality and a specific attention to materials which visibly age and decay, a view which stands in contrast to monumentalism in Land Art.^[11]

For his permanent sculptures like "Roof", "Stone River" and "Three Cairns", "Moonlit Path" (Petworth, West Sussex, 2002) and "Chalk Stones" in the South Downs, near West Dean, West Sussex he has employed the use of machine tools. To create "Roof", Goldsworthy worked with his assistant and five British dry-stone wallers, who were used to make sure the structure could withstand time and nature.

Goldsworthy is generally considered the founder of modern rock balancing.

Photography plays a crucial role in his art due to its often ephemeral and transient state. Photographs (made primarily by Goldsworthy himself) of site-specific, environmental works allow them to be shared without severing important ties to place.^[12] According to Goldsworthy, "Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit."^[13]

Photography aids Goldsworthy in understanding his works, as much as in communicating them to an audience. He has said, "Photography is my way of talking, writing and thinking about my art. It makes me aware of connections and developments that might have not otherwise have been apparent. It is the visual evidence which runs through my art as a whole and gives me a broader, more distant view of what I am doing."^[10]

Goldsworthy is the subject of a 2001 documentary feature film called Rivers and Tides, directed by German director Thomas Riedelsheimer.^[14] In 2018, Riedelsheimer released a second documentary on Goldsworthy titled Leaning Into the Wind.^[15]

In 1982, Goldsworthy married Judith Gregson; they had four children together before separating. He now lives in the Scottish village of Penpont with his girlfriend, Tina Fiske, an art historian.^[3]

• 1979 – North West Arts Award
• 1980 – Yorkshire Arts Award
• 1981 – Northern Arts Award
• 1982 – Northern Arts Award
• 1986 – Northern Arts Bursary
• 1987 – Scottish Arts Council Award
• 1989 – Northern Electricity Arts Award^{[citation needed]}
• 2000 – Appointed officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)^[3]

Image	Dates	Title	Location
	1995–2008	Sapsucker Cairn[16]	Ithaca, New York, USA
	1996–2003	Sheepfolds	Cumbria, England, UK
	1997	Stone House[17]	Herring Island, Victoria, Australia
	1997	Cairn[17]	Herring Island, Victoria, Australia
	1998	Hutton Roof	National Museum of Scotland Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
	22 May – 15 November 2000	Andy Goldsworthy at Storm King Art Center[18] (featuring the installation Storm King Wall)	Storm King Art Center Mountainville, Cornwall, New York, USA
	August 2001	Stone River[19]	Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University Stanford, California, USA
	2002	Andy Goldsworthy Arch at Goodwood[20]	Cass Sculpture Foundation Goodwood, West Sussex, England, UK
	2002	Chalk Stones Trail	South Downs near West Dean, West Sussex
	2002	Three Cairns[21]	Des Moines Art Center Des Moines, IA USA
	4 May – 31 October 2004	Andy Goldsworthy on the Roof[22] (featuring the installation Stone Houses)	Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof Garden New York City, USA
	2005	Andy Goldsworthy: Early Works A national touring exhibition from the Haywood Gallery[23]	England, United Kingdom
	2005	Drawn Stone[citation needed]	M. H. de Young Memorial Museum San Francisco
	2005	Arches[24]	Gibbs Farm New Zealand
	22 January – 15 May 2005	The Andy Goldsworthy Project[25] (including the installation Roof)[26]	National Gallery of Art National Mall, Washington, D.C., USA
	2006	Red sandstone wall at the Doerr-Hosier Center[27]	Aspen Institute Aspen, Colorado, USA
	31 March 2007 – 6 January 2008	Hanging Trees[28]	Yorkshire Sculpture Park West Bretton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, UK
	2007 – 2008	Clay Houses (Boulder-Room-Holes)[29]	Glenstone Potomac, Maryland, USA
	October 2008	Spire[30]	Park Presidio San Francisco
	June 2009	Refuge d'Art Hiking Trail, Provence, France[31]	Provence France
	2010-11	Wood Line[32]	Park Presidio San Francisco
	7 September 2012 – 2 November 2012	Domo de Argila / Clay Dome[33][34]	Cais do Porto Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
	2013	Tree Fall[35]	Park Presidio San Francisco
	2014	Earth Wall[36]	Park Presidio San Francisco
	2019	Walking Wall[37][38]	Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Missouri

• Andy Goldsworthy (1985). Rain, Sun, Snow, Hail, Mist, Calm: Photoworks by Andy Goldsworthy. Leeds: Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture. ISBN 0-901981-24-9.
• Andy Goldsworthy (1988). Parkland. [Yorkshire]: Yorkshire Sculpture Park. ISBN 1-871480-00-0.
• Andy Goldsworthy (1989). Touching North. London: Fabian Carlsson. ISBN 0-948274-06-9.
• Andy Goldsworthy (1989). Leaves. London: Common Ground. ISBN 1-870364-07-4.
• Andy Goldsworth (1990). Andy Goldsworthy. London: Viking. ISBN 0-670-83213-8. Republished as Andy Goldsworthy (1990). Andy Goldsworthy : A Collaboration with Nature. New York, N.Y.: H. N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-3351-9.
• Andy Goldsworthy (1992). Ice and Snow Drawings : 1990–1992. Edinburgh: FruitMarket Gallery. ISBN 0-947912-06-1.
• Goldsworthy, Andy; Friedman, Terry (1993). Hand to Earth : Andy Goldsworthy Sculpture, 1976–1990. New York, N.Y.: H. N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-3420-5.
• Andy Goldsworthy (1994). Stone. London: Viking. ISBN 0-670-85478-6.
• Goldsworthy, Andy; Chettle, Steve; Nesbitt, Paul; Humphries, Andrew (1996). Sheepfolds. London: Michael Hue-Williams Fine Art Ltd.
• Andy Goldsworthy (1996). Wood. Introduction by Terry Friedman. London: Viking. ISBN 0-670-87137-0.
• Goldsworthy, Andy; Craig, David (1999). Arch. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01933-9.
• Andy Goldsworthy. Chronology by Terry Friedman (2000). Time. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-51026-1.
• Goldsworthy, Andy; Thompson, Jerry L.; Storm King Art Center (2000). Wall at Storm King. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01991-6.
• Andy Goldsworthy. Introduction by Judith Collins (2001). Midsummer Snowballs. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-51065-2.
• Andy Goldsworthy (2002). Andy Goldsworthy : Refuges D'Art. Lyon; Digne, France: Editions Artha; Musée départemental de Digne. ISBN 2-84845-001-0.
• Andy Goldsworthy (2004). Passage. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-51191-8.
• Andy Goldsworthy (2007). Enclosure. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-09336-8.
• Goldsworthy, Andy (2015). Andy Goldsworthy: Ephemeral Works: 2004–2014. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1419717796.

• Environmental art
• Environmental sculpture
• Greenmuseum.org
• Land art
• Rock balancing

Articles:

• Beyst, Stefan (June 2002). "Andy Goldsworthy: The beauty of creation". Archived from the original on 25 June 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2007.
• Moore, Robbie. "Goldsworthy in stone". Specifier Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 September 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2007.
• SPARK Educator Guide Archived 9 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Andy Goldsworthy at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. (Visual Arts: earthworks). (2005).

Books:

• Malpas, William (1995). Andy Goldsworthy: Touching Nature. Kidderminster: Crescent Moon. ISBN 1-86171-049-6.
• Malpas, William (1998). The Art of Andy Goldsworthy. Kidderminster: Crescent Moon. ISBN 1-86171-032-1.
• Malpas, William (2003). Andy Goldsworthy in Close-Up. Maidstone, Kent: Crescent Moon. ISBN 1-86171-050-X.
• Malpas, William (2008). Andy Goldsworthy: Pocket Guide. Maidstone, Kent: Crescent Moon. ISBN 978-1-86171-241-7.

Film/Documentary

• Rivers and Tides (2001) documentary by Thomas Riedelsheimer
• Leaning into the Wind (2017) documentary by Thomas Riedelsheimer (Leaning into the Wind official Web site)

Wikiquote has quotations related to Andy Goldsworthy.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Andy Goldsworthy.

General:

• Andy Goldsworthy at the Cass Sculpture Foundation
• Andy Goldsworthy's 1980s work with Common Ground, a UK charity and lobby group promoting local distinctiveness
• Andy Goldsworthy working on Drawn Stone on KQED's TV programme Spark (June 2005)
• Andy Goldsworthy on Artcyclopedia
• Biography of Andy Goldsworthy at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Art:

• Online preview of the Andy Goldsworthy Digital Catalogue DVD Volume 1: 1976–1986. A collaborative effort involving Goldsworthy, The Crichton Foundation, and the University of Glasgow's Crichton Campus and Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII). The DVD documents, visually and textually, the first ten years of Goldsworthy's ephemeral outdoor practice. It replicates Goldsworthy's "Slide Cabinet Index", and includes previously unpublished material from "Goldsworthy's Sketchbook Diaries".
• "Wet feathers/Wrapped around a stone/Before the incoming tide, Carrick" (1999). Photograph from the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
• "Three Cairns" (2002), Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, US.
• Photographs by Andy Goldsworthy in the UK Government Art Collection.
• Andy Goldsworthy's Portfolio at the Cass Sculpture Foundation
• SaveLandArt.org – Media Initiatives to Protect Land Art from Urbanization, Industry and Overcuration.