Antony Gormley

Book Description

How can contemporary sculpture continue to respond to the human condition? For Antony Gormley, the answer lies not in celebrating heroic figures, but in returning to the subject that is both most familiar and most often overlooked—our own bodies. As a key volume in Phaidon’s Contemporary Artists series, this book combines extensive illustrations, critical essays, and the artist’s own reflections to trace Gormley’s practice from the 1970s onward, offering a profound exploration of how sculpture can redefine the relationship between the body, space, and existence.

Nearly all of Gormley’s works begin with casts of his own body, which he transforms into sculptures in cast iron, lead, or stainless steel before gradually abstracting the human form into geometric structures, linear frameworks, and spatial compositions. His concern has never been portraiture, but rather the body as the fundamental measure through which we perceive the world. From Angel of the North, rising above the urban skyline, to the one hundred cast-iron figures of Another Place gazing across the sea, and later works such as Quantum Cloud and Blockworks, Gormley continually challenges the relationship between sculpture and its surroundings, allowing time, light, tides, and viewers themselves to become active participants in the work.

Reading Antony Gormley is a journey into the very nature of sculpture. Beyond documenting his most celebrated projects, the book reveals the philosophical foundations of his practice, shaped by Eastern thought and reflections on existence. At a time when digital images increasingly dominate everyday life, Gormley reminds us that the body remains our first and most authentic medium for understanding the world. The true significance of sculpture, he suggests, lies not in occupying space, but in awakening our awareness of existence through the simple acts of looking, moving, and inhabiting space.


Details

Authors: John Hutchinson, E. H. Gombrich, W. J. T. Mitchell
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Publication Year: 1995
Dimensions: 29 × 25 cm
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 212 pages