Andy Goldsworthy

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

Early life

Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire on 25 July 1956, the son of Muriel (née Stanger) and Frederick Allin Goldsworthy (1929–2001), a former professor of applied mathematics at the University of Leeds.<ref name="Grove Art Online">Stonard, John Paul (10 December 2000). "Goldsworthy, Andy". Grove Art Online Template:Webarchive. Retrieved on 15 May 2007.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":4">Template:Citation</ref> 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."<ref name="Observer: Natural Talent">Template:Cite news</ref>

He attended Harrogate Secondary Modern and Harrogate High schools.<ref name=":4" /> From 1974–75, he studied fine art at Bradford College of Art,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> then from 1975–1978 at Preston Polytechnic, now the University of Central Lancashire,<ref name="Grove Art Online" /> where he received his BA.Template:Citation needed

Career

History

Sculpture by Goldsworthy in the National Museum of Scotland

After leaving college, Goldsworthy lived in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cumbria.<ref name="Cass" /> 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".<ref name="Cass">Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name="cornell">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2003,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2025, Goldsworthy held a major show in the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh to mark 50 years of him being an artist. When approached by the National Galleries of Scotland about doing a show, they expected Goldsworthy to focus on one of their outdoor spaces, instead he asked to have the use of the prominent city-centre gallery. The show featured a range of installations and photographs in the upper level of the gallery, plus a selection of earlier works including sketchbooks and videos in the lower levels.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref>

Art process

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."<ref name="Telegraph: Goldsworthy">Template:Cite news</ref>

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."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> Goldsworthy's commitment to working with available natural materials injects an inherent scarcity and contingency into the work.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref>

In contrast to other artists who work with the land, most of Goldsworthy's works are small in scale and temporary in their installation.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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."<ref name=":1" />

Documentary films on Goldsworthy

Goldsworthy is the subject of a 2001 documentary feature film called Rivers and Tides, directed by German director Thomas Riedelsheimer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2018, Riedelsheimer released a second documentary on Goldsworthy titled Leaning Into the Wind.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

In 1982, Goldsworthy married Judith Gregson; they had four children together before separating. Judith later died in 2008.<ref name=":2" /> He lives in the Scottish village of Penpont with his partner, Tina Fiske, an art historian.<ref name="Observer: Natural Talent"/>

Awards

Exhibitions and installations

Image Dates Title Location
1995–2008 Sapsucker Cairn<ref name="Sapsucker Cairn">Template:Cite web</ref> Ithaca, New York, USA
1996–2003 Sheepfolds Cumbria, England, UK
1997 Stone House<ref name="Herring Island artworks">Template:Cite web</ref> Herring Island, Victoria, Australia
1997 Cairn<ref name="Herring Island artworks"/> 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<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
(featuring the installation Storm King Wall) 		Storm King Art Center

Mountainville, Cornwall, New York, USA

August 2001 Stone River<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University

Stanford, California, USA

2002 Andy Goldsworthy Arch at Goodwood<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Cass Sculpture Foundation

Goodwood, West Sussex, England, UK

2002 Chalk Stones Trail South Downs near West Dean, West Sussex
2002 Three Cairns<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Des Moines Art Center

Des Moines, IA USA

4 May –
31 October 2004 		Andy Goldsworthy on the Roof<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

(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<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Cite news</ref>

England, United Kingdom
2005 Drawn StoneTemplate:Citation needed M. H. de Young Memorial Museum

San Francisco

2005 Arches<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gibbs Farm
New Zealand
22 January –
15 May 2005 		The Andy Goldsworthy Project<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

(including the installation Roof)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

National Gallery of Art

National Mall, Washington, D.C., USA

2006 Red sandstone wall at the Doerr-Hosier Center<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Aspen Institute

Aspen, Colorado, USA

31 March 2007 –
6 January 2008 		Hanging Trees<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Cite web</ref> Yorkshire Sculpture Park

West Bretton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, UK

2007 – 2008 Clay Houses (Boulder-Room-Holes)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Glenstone

Potomac, Maryland, USA

October 2008 Spire<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Park Presidio
San Francisco
June 2009 Refuge d'Art Hiking Trail, Provence, France<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Provence
France
2010-11 Wood Line<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Park Presidio
San Francisco
7 September 2012 –
2 November 2012 		Domo de Argila / Clay Dome<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Cais do Porto

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2013 Tree Fall<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Park Presidio
San Francisco
2014 Earth Wall<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Park Presidio
San Francisco
2019 Walking Wall<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Missouri
26 July –

2 November 2025

Andy Goldsworthy Fifty Years<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> Royal Scottish Academy

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Publications

See also

References

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Further information

Articles:

Books:

Film/Documentary

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General:

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