Andy Goldsworthy who was born in Cheshire on July 26, 1956, is a sculptor, photographer and an English environmentalist who produces sculpture and art of nature. He is an outstanding and innovative British artist because he is able to collaborate with nature to produce unique intense artwork from natural materials.
Andy grew up in Harrogate in Leeds, on the West Riding of Yorkshire, in a house full of natural atmosphere. Since the age of 13, he worked in agriculture as a laborer. According to Andy agricultural work is like making a status because it should always be done repeatedly as a routine. A small example is when picking up potatoes, something that is done repeatedly to create a rhythm of its own.
Andy Goldsworthy became interested in arts and majored in fine arts at Bradford College of Art in 1974 to 1975 and went to Preston Polytechnic (now Central University of Lancashire) for three years from 1975 and received his Bachelor of Arts (BA).
Andy’s interest in art is unique because of the medium he uses. The medium used often includes brightly colored flowers, ice, leaves, mud, pine fruit, snow, rocks, twigs, and even thorns. He is able to create a statue that manifests and gives a touch of sympathy with nature.
He said that working with flowers and leaves requires very high courage but he must do it. Working with materials that cannot be edited while working is unique because that’s where he can work with nature as a whole.
Not only was he is a sculptor but also a reliable photographer so before the work disappeared or when the work disappeared, Goldsworthy captures his work in a remarkable photo shoot.
Photography plays an important role in the art that he is doing because of the nature of his art that can not last long. According to Goldsworthy, the process is an integral part of the cycle shown in the photograph. There is an intensity that he wants to express in each picture. A process and decay are implied very deeply in each result.
Goldsworthy is considered the founder of modern rock balance. For his works almost entirely has very short lifespan because Goldsworthy often uses only his bare hands or his teeth. However, he uses a machine tool for his permanent sculpture such as Roof, Stone River, Three Cairn and Moonlit Path.
In 1982, Goldsworthy married his girlfriend, Judith Gregson. They have four children and decided to settle in the village of Penpont in southwestern Scotland. The couple eventually split up and Goldsworthy now lives with Tina Fiske, an art historian whom he met when he came to work with him a few years after he separated from his wife.
Andy Goldsworthy is also the subject of a documentary film made in 2001 entitled Rivers and Tides and directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer. In this documentary, we can see how he works with natural materials and all the process before the work is created and put it into the photo. In 2018, Riedelsheimer released a second documentary about Goldsworthy with titled Leaning into the wind.
Goldsworthy’s artworks are on display at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C, and many other top art museums.
Andy Goldsworthy’s work is able to let us see the beauty of nature from a high-level art perspective with the aim that anyone who sees can be inspired, contemplate and preserve the nature.
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