{"id":191582,"date":"2025-12-14T16:32:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/191582\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T16:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:32:22","slug":"for-antony-gormley-sculpture-is-the-most-challenging-form-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/191582\/","title":{"rendered":"For Antony Gormley, Sculpture Is the Most Challenging Form of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrated for his sculptures, drawings, installations, and public works that explore how the human body relates to space, Antony Gormley<\/a> uses the body as a symbol of memory and change, reflecting on human existence and the connection between individuals and their environment. Using casts and scans of himself (and others in collaborative projects), the 1994 Turner Prize winner emphasizes the void once occupied by the body, highlighting absence, while encouraging viewers to see their own presence within the space. By using simple human forms without specific facial features or narrative, the sculptures become anonymous symbols that allow viewers to project their own experiences and connect with the artwork.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Man<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAntony Gormley.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: John O\u2019Rourke<\/p>\n

Spanning Gormley\u2019s career from his experimental work in the early 1980s to the present, the Nasher Sculpture Center<\/a> in Dallas is hosting the first major museum survey of the 75-year-old artist\u2019s work in the U.S. Carefully curated for Renzo Piano<\/a>\u2019s light-filled architecture by Chief Curator Jed Morse, \u201cSURVEY: Antony Gormley\u201d features a focused selection of seventeen major sculptures from the artist\u2019s 45-year career, displayed alongside sculptural works by other artists\u2014ranging from Alberto Giacometti<\/a> and Jean Arp to Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta\u2014that Gormley chose from the Nasher\u2019s impressive collection.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Modern<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInstallation view of \u201cSURVEY: Antony Gormley,\u201d Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: \u00a9 Antony Gormley. Photo by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center<\/p>\n

These works are displayed on the museum\u2019s ground floor and outdoor terrace, overlooking its marvelous sculpture garden. On the Nasher\u2019s lower level, models from the artist\u2019s studio reference over 60 large-scale projects, both unrealized and completed, from around the world, along with pages from more than 100 workbooks that the artist has kept with him continually since the 1970s. Topping off the show, Gormley is debuting an urban installation on the museum\u2019s rooftop and on the upper levels of nearby skyscrapers in downtown Dallas<\/a>, featuring six skeletal figures gazing out over the cityscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose sculpture because it was the most exciting and challenging form of art for me,\u201d the British artist shared with Galerie from his studio in London. \u201cI was awarded art prizes in secondary school and encouraged to paint and draw, but I realized that the joy of sculpture is that you\u2019re not just creating a picture of something that already exists\u2014you\u2019re directly engaging with the world and transforming it. Painting fixes you in one place. Sculpture does exactly the opposite. It encourages you to move around it and observe how it interacts with its context and with space at large. It doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s conscious or unconscious; our movement starts a conversation. And I think that\u2019s amazing, especially in a time when we\u2019re increasingly sucked into the virtual.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Modern<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInstallation view of \u201cSURVEY: Antony Gormley,\u201d Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center<\/p>\n

The exhibition begins with three key works\u2014Seeds IV (2008), Pile I (2017), and Drift (2010)\u2014that showcase the diversity in Gormley\u2019s experimental and philosophical approach to sculpture. Seeds IV is a small, mountain-like pile of lead bullets cast from ammunition belonging to his father\u2019s World War II handgun, transforming the destructive intent of the bullets into the life-giving promise of seeds. Pile l is a clay sculpture of a figure in a fetal position, symbolizing birth and rebirth, as a burial stance returning the body to the earth. It was created from an accumulation of body parts while the clay was still soft, with the weight of each part shaping the connected forms. And Drift is a three-dimensional, suspended, cloud-like sculpture of a dematerialized body, made of stainless-steel rods that form interconnected bubbles, one of the most insubstantial forms of matter. It was created by packing a body with spheres, emphasizing the empty space left by the physical form rather than the figure itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe survey is broken up into several sections, covering multiple galleries,\u201d Morse told Galerie during a walkthrough, explaining the installation. \u201cIt\u2019s a very focused survey. It\u2019s not presented in chronological order. It responds to the space. The idea is to show the different ways the artist has explored the central themes of his work, providing a comprehensive overview of his practice. The show also includes a large room downstairs with models and workbooks, which is almost like a Gormley library or study center. This gallery is important because it conveys a sense of the artist\u2019s ambition and scope, as well as how he thinks in scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drawing is a form of lucid dreaming that allows you to go anywhere, be anywhere, and do anything. I can\u2019t imagine being an artist without drawing\u201d<\/p>\n

Antony Gormley<\/p>\n

The exhibit extends beyond the ground-floor galleries onto the terrace overlooking the garden, featuring Prop (2018) and Close V (1998). A nude male figure cast in iron, Prop leans against an exterior wall of the museum, resembling an architectural brace meant to support it. Whether consciously or unconsciously named after Serra\u2019s 1968 eponymous sculpture, which features a rolled sheet of lead forming a pole used to prop a 5 x 5-foot square sheet of lead against a wall, it evokes it.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Bronze<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAntony Gormley, Close V, (1998).
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: \u00a9 Antony Gormley. Photo by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Three<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAntony Gormley, Three Places, (1983).
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: \u00a9 Antony Gormley. Courtesy of the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Collection. Photo by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Close V features a cast-iron male nude figure, face down in a spread-eagle pose, either hugging the ground or holding the world, as it explores the relationship between the human body, space, and the environment. Ironically, it brings to mind Piero Manzoni\u2019s 1961 sculpture Socle du monde (Base of the World), flipping an artist\u2019s pedestal upside down and declaring the entire Earth a work of art. One has to wonder whether these references, which viewers might not recognize but could discover as they try to understand Gormley\u2019s works, are among the hidden meanings in his art.<\/p>\n

A significant sculpture in the show, and one that Raymond and Patsy Nasher acquired for their collection, Three Places (1983) captures the artist\u2019s body in lead in three everyday positions: sleeping, sitting, and standing. Showing how the body relates to space not as an object but as a place where internal and external experiences happen, the work was inspired by Gormley\u2019s fascination with the American minimalist movement\u2019s use of industrial materials, especially by artists like Carl Andre<\/a>, whose work is displayed in the collection gallery alongside Gormley\u2019s, and Richard Serra, whose monumental sculpture made of Corten steel is on view in the museum\u2019s sculpture garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy three-part lead works originate from the very start of my inquiry into how to reintroduce the body into the language of sculpture,\u201d the artist said. \u201cThere are three fundamental human life positions: sleeping or lying awake, awakening or sitting up\u2014literally becoming alert and aware\u2014and then standing and looking outward. The angle of the head is very important. It\u2019s not just about looking outward; it\u2019s about looking upward. It\u2019s about gazing into the infinite sky. This is the foundation of my work here. There are three places identified by this hermetic lead carapace\u2014three human spaces in space at large.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Modern<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInstallation view of \u201cSURVEY: Antony Gormley,\u201d Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: \u00a9 Antony Gormley. Photo by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center<\/p>\n

Revealing Gormley\u2019s interest in modern materials and minimalist forms while reintegrating the figure into the contemporary art dialogue, concrete sculptures like Sense (1991) capture the negative space of the body in a cement cube using the lost-wax casting process, while Shift (2023) depicts an abstract figure face down on the ground, formed from bunker-like, brutalist architectural blocks. Nearby, Corten steel is used to create an assembly of cardboard boxes that forms a reclining, geometric figure for Open Hold (2017) and Implicate IV (2024), a rusty sculpture made with expanding straps that produce an architectural field based on the deconstructed body. And three cubistic, cast-iron characters\u2014Grasp (Block) and Grasp (Block) II, both from 2019, and Heave (Block), from 2020\u2014dynamically depict pixelated figures holding geometric cubes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sculpture<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAntony Gormley, Domain XCVI, (2025).
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: \u00a9 Antony Gormley. Photo by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center<\/p>\n

More pixelated figures are displayed on the Nasher\u2019s rooftop and the upper levels of five high-rise buildings surrounding the museum in the Dallas Arts District. The sculptures are part of his new Domain series, featuring solitary, diffused figures made from interconnected steel bars. Related to his more solid Event Horizon sculptural characters, which debuted in London in 2007 and have since been installed on high-rises in New York, S\u00e3o Paulo, and Hong Kong, Gormley sees these new perched, pixelated, skeletal figures as symbols of human energy systems\u2014viewing the figures as urban animals cut off from nature but yearning for it on the horizon.<\/p>\n

When asked whether this shift to a more geometric, pixelated figure in the early 2000s was influenced by modernist movements like the Bauhaus and Minimalism, or by the rise of pixels in today\u2019s digital technology, Gormley replied, \u201cI believe it\u2019s the latter. I\u2019ve always been fascinated by architecture and am very mindful of referencing the styles of Mies van der Rohe<\/a> or Walter Gropius, but the shift happened very naturally for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Modern<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInstallation view of \u201cSURVEY: Antony Gormley,\u201d Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: \u00a9 Antony Gormley. Photo by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center<\/p>\n

\u201cI transitioned from lead and body casting to scanning and digital methods\u2014basically using digital tools to identify a human presence in space,\u201d he added. \u201cI now see my work as deeply rooted in the cyber age. We progressed from the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age to the Information Age. We are living in a dematerialized era. I want to rematerialize the dematerialization. That\u2019s become very important to me, even as the pixels keep getting larger, to the point where I\u2019m creating body forms with as few as nine blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Modern<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Models and workbooks by Antony Gormley, as installed in \u201cSURVEY: Antony Gormley,\u201d Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas,
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: \u00a9 Antony Gormley. Photo by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center <\/p>\n

Exploring downstairs, visitors see how the artist\u2019s materials have evolved over the years through models used for initial research on various completed and unrealized projects, while Gormley\u2019s workbooks in wall vitrines contain drawings relevant to sculptures in the exhibition and works in the model room. There are small-scale models of some of his largest artworks, including his iconic Angel of the North (1998), considered one of Britain\u2019s most famous public art projects; Another Place (2005), an installation of 100 life-sized cast iron nude figures, modeled after the artist\u2019s body, facing out to sea near Liverpool; and Exposure (2010) is a 36-foot-tall steel sculpture of a crouching man that sits on a dam in a waterway in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cJed Morse was very clear about wanting as many finished projects as possible, and he also emphasized that we should include as many workbooks related to those projects as part of the mix,\u201d Gormley stated. \u201cBut he also wanted the workbooks to serve as a demonstration of my thinking and working process. Drawing is an open field of possibility; it\u2019s the seedbed of everything. I couldn\u2019t live without drawing. Drawing is a form of lucid dreaming that allows you to go anywhere, be anywhere, and do anything. I can\u2019t imagine being an artist without drawing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Art<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAntony Gormley\u2019s workbooks, 1977-2024, as installed in \u201cSURVEY: Antony Gormley,\u201d Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: \u00a9 Antony Gormley. Photo by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center<\/p>\n

Unknowingly, Nasher viewers are also getting a glimpse of Gormley\u2019s largest work yet. The drawing and model for his public art project Elemental are included in the display, but they are not overly emphasized\u2014and certainly do not have the impact that the finished work will have. Currently being fabricated in South Korea, Elemental is a massive, permanent installation featuring a reclining figure composed of a series of rectangular box shapes, which will be located on a tidal flat off the coast of an island in Shinan Province, a tranquil area of South Korea. Measuring 360 feet long (the size of an American football field), 75 feet high, and 59 feet deep, it\u2019s designed to interact with the natural environment, from shifting light and rising tides to changing weather and its colonization by marine life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a work of humankind offered back to the elements,\u201d Gormley enthusiastically shared before departing the studio for the day. \u201cIt\u2019s the largest piece I\u2019ve ever created and fulfills my goal to use the language, materials, and confidence of civil engineering projects to create an imaginative object. It\u2019s a \u2018parinirvana<\/a>,\u2019 a reclining Buddha figure made of 38 space frames, resting on a tide plane on a beach, reflecting sea level rise. I see this work as a cathedral without walls, which visitors are invited to enter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Two<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInstallation view of \u201cSURVEY: Antony Gormley,\u201d Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: \u00a9 Antony Gormley. Photo by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a work that combines my two passions,\u201d he added, \u201ccreating proprioceptive environments where people become more aware of their own movement through time and space, and exploring, through a new anatomy, what it feels like to be in a body. And this work does both. You will only see it as a full body if you climb up a path to the top of a mountain, where you can view this 110-meter-long body reclining in the waves. I\u2019m happy to die now because if this work succeeds, I believe it will be a good example of what I have to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSURVEY: Antony Gormley\u201d is on view at Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas through January 4, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celebrated for his sculptures, drawings, installations, and public works that explore how the human body relates to space,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[102837,102838,307,304,305,306,18513,308,93,61,60,102839,40543,59530],"class_list":{"0":"post-191582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-alberto-giacometti","9":"tag-antony-gormley","10":"tag-arts","11":"tag-arts-and-design","12":"tag-artsanddesign","13":"tag-artsdesign","14":"tag-dallas","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-jean-arp","20":"tag-nasher-sculpture-center","21":"tag-renzo-piano"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}