An extensive survey in Scotland celebrates Andy Goldsworthy’s fifty years of land art – Huge

Andy Goldsworthy grew up on the edge of Leeds, with rural fields in Yorkshire heading in one direction and on the other the city’s city center. As a teenager, he worked on local farms that instill early respect for the land, an obsession that will be integrated into interdisciplinary artistic practices over the next few decades. The artist continued to draw inspiration from the forests, hills and fields of this picturesque area of England during his last forty years in Dumfriesshire, southern Scotland.

Using a variety of materials and environments from stones and leaves to streams and trees, the artist creates encounters that explore human interaction with the land. He told NPR in 2015: “The purpose is not to imitate nature, but to understand it. Temporary devices are usually recorded after completion and then left to the elements, reflecting the way nature is always changing, whether it is through cycles, evolved over time, or is positively changed by human forces.

The National Gallery of Scotland has proposed a new retrospective exhibition. Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Yearsin the Royal Scottish College Building. To celebrate the pioneering career of the artist, the survey published more than 200 photos, sketchbooks, sculptures, installations and archival supplies, the project dates back to some of his earliest experiments in the mid-1970s and conceived for the show this year.

Goldsworthy draws our attention to nature and its actions (or do not act) by summoning incredible events. The cracks of the fallen leaves resemble those on Earth, or he outlined a hole in the elm tree through a bright yellow jagged opening. The artist also interacts with nature through physical participation, just like climbing a cold hedge, as if challenging its function as a boundary and demonstrating its possibility as a conduit.

Goldsworthy learned many of the techniques he adopted in practice through his early experience working on the Yorkshire farm. He packed the hay and prepared the field planted by a method called suffering, raising livestock and stones. At the art school, he began to experiment with photography and film to document his ephemeral works in the landscape.

Over the past fifty years, Goldsworthy has become a leading land artist in the contemporary era, influenced by groundbreaking figures such as Robert Smithson and Joseph Beuys, which in turn influenced the work of young artists such as Jon Foreman or Laura Ellen Bacon. Goldsworthy emphasizes the beauty and aristocracy of land work, not by trying to control it, but by working Simultaneous with his surroundings and shed light on details and patterns that we may not see.

The relationship between humans and the natural environment remains the core focus of the Goldsworthy intervention, from which he carved large chunks of snow and dragged them to the countryside to the way he explained the interior spaces of the Royal Scottish Academy building. For example, a massive installation called the Oak Passage transforms the gallery into a neat bush with driveways, from the center to barriers and access, depending on how it approaches.

Although he does not usually consider himself a performer, he often portrays himself in interventions, capturing activities in photos and films. The public environment of his works, whether installed indoors or outdoors, invites people to move around and activate the works. In this exhibition, his interaction with the historic Royal Scottish Academy building is considered a work that takes into account the continuity of history, people, art and elements that have an impact on the scene over time.

Find more on the artist’s website. Plan your visit Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty YearsIt lasts until November 25 on the museum website in Edinburgh. Follow the road to the National Museum of Scotland and permanently mark the entrance to the atmospheric early figures through Goldsworthy to keep the small sculptures. And, if you’re going to Yorkshire, discover four permanent installations along the artist at Andy Goldsworthy Trail.