Antony Gormley

From Freepedia

Antony Gormley (born 1950) is an English sculptor. He is best known among the general public as the creator of Angel of the North, a controversial piece of public sculpture in Gateshead.

Gormley studied at Ampleforth College. He also studied at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1968 to 1971 before going to India and Sri Lanka to study Buddhism from 1971 to 1974. From 1974 onwards, he attended various colleges in London, completing his studies with a postgraduate course in sculpture at the Slade School of Art, UCL between 1977 and 1979.

Almost all of his work takes the human body as its subject, with his own body used in many works as the basis for metal casts.

Gormley's sculptures lack any personal detail distinguishing them as a particular human being. Instead, the forms are smoothed out making them completely anonymous.

Gormley won the Turner Prize in 1994.

Major works

Gormley's website lists over 500 works (the last from 2002). The most notable include:

• Field (and subsequent recreations).
• Sound II (1986) in the crypt of Winchester Cathedral.
• Iron:Man (1993) Victoria Square, Birmingham.
• Another Place (1997) currently at Crosby Beach, Liverpool.
• Angel of the North (1998)

Proposals not taken forward

• The Brick Man, a proposal for the Holbeck Triangle, a disused patch of land bounded by three railway embankments just outside Leeds City station, was to be a circa 20 metre high representation of the human male form, made in brickwork. The proposal, circa 1980, was not favoured by the city, which refused planning permission.

External links

• Official home page
• An interview with Gormley by Edward Lucie Smith in RealMedia format
• An interview conducted by F. David Peat
• Gateshead Council's page on Angel of the North
• Gormley's page at the Tate Gallery
• 'Antony Gormley: the abortive rebirth of the slaves'
• The Brick Man at Leeds City Art Gallery