Andy Goldsworthy

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. 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."

He attended Harrogate Secondary Modern and Harrogate High schools. From 1974–75, he studied fine art at Bradford College of Art, then from 1975–1978 at Preston Polytechnic, now the University of Central Lancashire, where he received his BA.

Career

History

After leaving college, Goldsworthy lived in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cumbria. 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".

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.

In 2003, 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.

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.

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."

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." Goldsworthy's commitment to working with available natural materials injects an inherent scarcity and contingency into the work.

In contrast to other artists who work with the land, most of Goldsworthy's works are small in scale and temporary in their installation. 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.

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. 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."

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."

Documentary films on Goldsworthy

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

Personal life

In 1982, Goldsworthy married Judith Gregson; they had four children together before separating. Judith later died in 2008. He lives in the Scottish village of Penpont with his partner, Tina Fiske, an art historian.

Awards

• 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
• 2000 – Appointed officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

Exhibitions and installations

Publications

• Republished as

References

Further information

Articles:

• SPARK Educator Guide . Andy Goldsworthy at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. (Visual Arts: earthworks). (2005).

Books:

Film/Documentary

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

References

1. Stonard, John Paul (10 December 2000). "Goldsworthy, Andy". [http://www.groveart.com Grove Art Online] {{Webarchive. link. (21 August 2008 . Retrieved on 15 May 2007.)
2. "Andy Goldsworthy Biography". Encyclopedia of World Biography.
3. (2007-12-01). "Goldsworthy, Andrew Charles, (Andy), (born 25 July 1956), artist and sculptor". Oxford University Press.
4. Adams, Tim. (11 March 2007). "Natural talent". [[The Observer]].
5. "Andy Goldsworthy". Bradford College.
6. "Andy Goldsworthy". Cass Sculpture Foundation.
7. "All Professors at Large 1965 to June 30, 2021". Cornell University.
8. (22 March 2010). "Andy Goldsworthy: "Drawn Stone," 2005".
9. Douglas, Sarah. (24 October 2005). "In Their Words: James Turrell and Andy Goldsworthy". ARTINFO.
10. (2025-07-26). "A life's artwork: 50 years of Andy Goldsworthy".
11. (2025). "Andy Goldsworthy Fifty Years, exhibition guide". [[National Galleries of Scotland]].
12. Sooke, Alastair. (24 March 2007). "He's got the whole world in his hands". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
13. Hatley, James D.. (2005). "Techne and Phusis: Wilderness and the Aesthetics of the Trace in Andrew Goldsworthy". Environmental Philosophy.
14. De Warren, Nicolas. (2007). "Off the Beaten Path: The Artworks of Andrew Goldsworthy". Environmental Philosophy.
15. (1995). "A Solo Ecology: The Erratic Art of Andy Goldsworthy". Ecumene.
16. Fawcett, Laughlin. (1997). "The Geometrician". Landscape Architecture Magazine.
17. (19 February 2006). "Andy Goldsworthy: Art of nature". [[ninemsn]].
18. "Rivers and Tides".
19. Ide, Wendy. (2018-08-12). "Leaning into the Wind review – more travels with Andy Goldsworthy". The Observer.
20. "Sapsucker Cairn". Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.
21. "Artworks of Herring Island Environmental Sculpture Park". Herring Island.
22. (2000). "Andy Goldsworthy at Storm King Art Center". [[Storm King Art Center]].
23. (4 September 2001). "Andy Goldsworthy sculpture, ''Stone River'', enters Stanford University's outdoor art collection". Cantor Arts Center, [[Stanford University]].
24. "Andy Goldsworthy: Arch at Goodwood, 2002". Cass Sculpture Foundation.
25. (2023). "Three Cairns". [[Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation]].
26. (2004). "Andy Goldsworthy on the Roof". [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].
27. (4 May 2005}} {{cite news). "Andy Goldsworthy : Early Works : Leaves, Twigs, Enormous Snowballs and Icicles... Andy Goldworthy's Sculptures are Inherently Surprising and Beautiful". [[bbc.co.uk]].
28. "Andy Goldsworthy, Arches - Gibbs Farm".
29. (2005). "The Andy Goldsworthy Project : 22 January – 15 May 2005". [[National Gallery of Art]].
30. "Andy Goldsworthy : Roof". [[National Gallery of Art]].
31. Oksenhorn, Stewart. (23 September 2006). "A Wall of Integration, Not Division". [[Aspen Times.
32. Calton, Gary (photographer). (11 March 2007). "Andy Goldsworthy at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park". [[Yorkshire Sculpture Park]].
33. "Andy Goldsworthy".
34. (2009). "Spire, by Andy Goldsworthy". The Presidio Trust.
35. (19 June 2009). "Provence art trail, by Andy Goldsworthy". The Guardian.
36. (2011). "Andy Goldsworthy's Wood Line". The Presidio Trust.
37. "OiR Final release". Oi Futuro Public Art Program.
38. (19 September 2012). "Andy Goldsworthy – Domo de Argila Legendado – YouTube". Oi Futuro Public Art Program.
39. (2014). "Andy Goldsworthy's Earth Wall". The Presidio Trust.
40. (2014). "Andy Goldsworthy's Tree Fall". The Presidio Trust.
41. Mark Gardiner. (23 October 2019). "This Wall Was Made For Walking". The New York Times.
42. "Walking Wall".