Research Task: Antony Gormley
Year 11 Research Task
Antony Gormley
Examine the relationship between artists, the artworks they create and their intended audiences.
“Field” - Antony Gormley
“Waste Man” - Antony Gormley
“Still Falling” - Antony Gormley
Antony Gormley was born in London in 1950, his artistic career has spanned over forty years and some of his best known works include “Field”, “Waste Man” and “Still Falling”. The majority of Gormley’s sculptures include the human form, he claims this is “an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live”.
Gormley was raised in an upper-class Roman Catholic family; he was the oldest of seven children to a German mother and an Irish father. Between 1968 and 1979, Gormley attended Ampleforth College, Trinity College, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the Slade School of Fine Art. He also travelled throughout India and Sri Lanka. In 1981, Gormley hosted his first solo exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery.
Debatably Gormley’s most famous project, his “Field” series has created much controversy and roused much interest in the art-making community. Originally an instalment consisting of approximately 35,000 terracotta figures, “Field” was constructed by sixty members of a family of brick makers. Each figure is between eight centimetres and twenty six centimetres tall and has two hollow eyes designed to stare at the viewer. Each figure is placed on the floor of the display room and arranged so that they appear to be looking straight at the viewer.
Since the first display of “Field” (which drew a lot of media attention), the figures have been set up in many different galleries. Each time the installation is moved it changes slightly, as each figure again has to be individually placed.
Since the first “Field” attracted so much attention, Gormley has recreated it many times in many different locations. He has since constructed “Amazonian Field”, “Field for the British Isles”,
Antony Gormley
Examine the relationship between artists, the artworks they create and their intended audiences.
“Field” - Antony Gormley
“Waste Man” - Antony Gormley
“Still Falling” - Antony Gormley
Antony Gormley was born in London in 1950, his artistic career has spanned over forty years and some of his best known works include “Field”, “Waste Man” and “Still Falling”. The majority of Gormley’s sculptures include the human form, he claims this is “an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live”.
Gormley was raised in an upper-class Roman Catholic family; he was the oldest of seven children to a German mother and an Irish father. Between 1968 and 1979, Gormley attended Ampleforth College, Trinity College, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the Slade School of Fine Art. He also travelled throughout India and Sri Lanka. In 1981, Gormley hosted his first solo exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery.
Debatably Gormley’s most famous project, his “Field” series has created much controversy and roused much interest in the art-making community. Originally an instalment consisting of approximately 35,000 terracotta figures, “Field” was constructed by sixty members of a family of brick makers. Each figure is between eight centimetres and twenty six centimetres tall and has two hollow eyes designed to stare at the viewer. Each figure is placed on the floor of the display room and arranged so that they appear to be looking straight at the viewer.
Since the first display of “Field” (which drew a lot of media attention), the figures have been set up in many different galleries. Each time the installation is moved it changes slightly, as each figure again has to be individually placed.
Since the first “Field” attracted so much attention, Gormley has recreated it many times in many different locations. He has since constructed “Amazonian Field”, “Field for the British Isles”,