Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature [Hardcover]

Andy Goldsworthy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1990

Goldsworthy creates sculpture in the open that manifests, however fleetingly, a sympathetic contact with the natural world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

From Library Journal

A new generation of American and European sculptors is receiving critical and commercial attention for rediscovering, in the spirit of Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel (1913), the wealth of forms in everyday life. Variously labeled "New Object," "Metaphoric Object," "Neo-Geo," or "Simulationist," this new sculpture mimics familiar objects from industrial, domestic, and historical sources. [...] Goldsworthy is an extraordinarily innovative British artist who employs a range of natural materials--leaves, bark, twigs, petals, berries, rock, clay, stones, feathers, snow, ice--to create outdoor sculpture that works instinctively in nature. His range of scale is impressive, from grasses and leaves to ice spires and slate stacks. Goldsworthy records his works in the 120 full-color photographs that are the subject of this book. The delicate tensions and balance of his collaborations encourage a sharpened perception of the natural world. Goldsworthy's introduction eloquently explains his working methods and philosophy and convinces the reader that he's doing more than playing the primitive.
- Russell T. Clement, Brigham Young Univ. Lib., Provo, Ut.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First Edition edition (September 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810933519
• ISBN-13: 978-0810933514
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 0.7 x 12.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Arts & Photography > History & Criticism > Criticism
  • #72 in Books > Arts & Photography > Individual Artists

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 85 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mind-opening, eye-catching, spirit-raising September 7, 2002

By Catherine S. Vodrey

Format:Hardcover

Andy Goldsworthy is a genius. I can't think of another late 20th century artist whose work is so enormously accessible and so hugely rewarding. In "A Collaboration with Nature," Goldsworthy shows us the miracles he has wrought with the simplest materials he finds in front of him: mere stones, water, leaves, branches, mud, and thorns, all "found objects," become the sundry mediums through which Goldsworthy works his visual sorcery.

Just a few of dozens of high points in the book:

- A graceful circle on the ground, created with brown leaves on the outer perimeter, warming to red, then orange, then yellow leaves toward the center;

- A "slate crack line" created when Goldsworthy carefully arranged pieces of slate so that the edges formed a seeming "crack" in the pile;

- Three "statues" made of balanced ovoid rocks in the middle of a snow-covered stream, each appearing to be something like well-rounded Giacomettis;

- A snowball eerily suspended in and supported by the trees which surround it;

- A rectangle of snow, in the middle of which Goldsworthy has carefully carved concentric, successively shallower circles so that the light gleams from the center but gets dimmer and dimmer with each larger circle;

- A sycamore branch placed on a bed of snow, juxtaposed with the same sycamore branch stripped of bark and placed on a bed of leaves--the first is dark against white, and the second is white against dark;

- An arching series of ice triangles, each of which has been painstakingly stuck to the next and balanced on a moss-covered rock--this looks almost like a glass wing of some sort.

I could go on and on by covering every single page in the book, but I'll leave it to you to find out for yourself what a visual feast Goldsworthy provides for the eyes--and what interesting mental exercise he provides for the mind of the observant viewer.

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Earth that we forgot May 3, 2000

By Alex

Format:Hardcover

Goldsworthy takes utterly mundane natural materials - leaves, sticks, stones, ice, grass, flowers - and alters them in ways that don't quite change them, but simply make us take notice. Like a reviewer below noticed, the artist takes what is already there - he neither creates the icicle, nor does he cultivate the leaf. However, that is not what Goldsworthy mission is - he collaborates. He reorganizes nature into forms we haven't yet seen, forms which are so delicate, simple, and natural, that they draw us us to examine them, to see why these mundane things are so new, so vivid, so beautiful, and to once more discover the simple miracles of nature. After all, the only reason we don't see how enchanting the Earth around us is that we simply forgot about it. This book is enough to make us remember.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable merging of vision and patience, art and nature. February 18, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

The work of Andy Goldsworthy is an inspirational meditation. He begins by going into nature and observing what is already there -- the subtleties of colors, the slight variance between similar rocks or twigs or leaves, the light and the texture. He then patiently creates each sculpture, laying a sense of order where none had been before.

Most inspirational to my soul is how he couples his artistic vision of the beauty intrinsic in nature, coupled with his patience to modify and follow through. He shows us what is possible if we can imagine it, can think through how it should be done, and have the patience to work with nature to create it.

Some pieces take him days of collecting rocks, or sorting leaves by color, or patiently allowing one icicle to freeze to another. Sometimes his work is lost to wind or animals or the sun and he must start over. But he continues on to build the structure and the order that he sees in his mind's eye, working within nature, and creating something that is almost supernatural.

Each person I've shown this book to has been absorbed and amazed. It's the one I give as gifts so spread the word of the work of Andy Goldsworthy.