Wall: At Storm King - Hardcover

Goldsworthy, Andy; Thompson, Jerry L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810945592 ISBN 13: 9780810945593

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2000

Synopsis

British artist Andy Goldsworthy, known for creating art outdoors and from natural materials, has now built a 2,278-foot stone wall at Storm King Art Center, a sculpture park on the Hudson River in Mountainville, New York. This sensitive and detailed response to the land - former farmland in an area rich in stone walls - is one of his most impressive and important sculptures.
The book's stunning color photographs show the wall from every vantage point and in all four seasons, and document ephemeral work made around it. Kenneth Baker's essay considers the Storm King wall in the context of Goldsworthy's previous work, in particular the other walls he has made in the United States, France, and Britain.

About this title

Review

For those familiar with Stone and Wood, Wall will come as a welcome and developed exploration of the tension between the two media. Goldsworthy first incorporated dry stone walls into his sculpture in 1989, when he made his first sheep fold using techniques learnt as a seasonal farm labourer. In 1995, he was invited by the Storm King Arts Center, 500 acres of splendid museum space dedicated to the interaction of art and nature north of Manhattan, to create a piece, and the result, British sensibility on an American canvas, was Wall. Drawing on a previous work, Wall that Went for a Walk, in Grizedale forest, Cumbria, Goldsworthy traced an existent line from a derelict wall amongst trees, snaking from a track to water, and as an afterthought, out again. The original wall had been displaced by trees whose trunks Goldsworthy incorporated into the course and motion of his empathetic wall, and which would, in time, once again reclaim the ground from the wall. Wood, stone, wood, stone, with the potential for wood again: you can see why this material dynamic appealed to Goldsworthy. This permanent sculpture, an organic evolution from the artist's better known ephemeral projects with fragile materials such as leaves, grass and snow, is captured with consummate sensitivity by the lens of Jerry L. Thompson, reflecting the ephemeral, ever-changing aspect of the most solid structure reliant upon seasonal light and weather changes. Gently augmented by notebook annotation and reflection from Goldsworthy, alongside complementary images from past works (and the inclusion of potted biographies of the wallers themselves, very much integral to the project's achievement), as well as an appreciative essay by art critic Kenneth Baker, and the result is an airily attractive record, that is, as always, an essential strand of the artistic representation. Incorporating history, tradition and acutely responsive to the lay of the land, Andy Goldsworthy, like fellow British artist Richard Long, once again proves himself a landscape artist for our time. --David Vincent

About the Author

Andy Goldsworthy was born in 1956 in Cheshire, England. His work is regularly exhibited in Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and elsewhere. Although commissions take him all over the world, the landscape around his home in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, remains at the heart of his work. His previous books include Abrams' Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature, Hand to Earth, Stone, Wood, and Arch. Jerry L. Thompson is a highly regarded photographer who has contributed to a number of books, including Abrams' Mark di Suvero. Kenneth Baker is an art critic at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810945592
• ISBN 13: 9780810945593
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 92