The earth is Goldsworthy's medium, and he works quiet, fleeting miracles as he creates exquisitely delicate and temporal sculptures out of leaves, twigs, ice, petals, feathers, sand, water, and stone. Left open to the forces of time and change, each piece succumbs to the inevitable process of dissolution, an integral aspect of Goldsworthy's lyrically sacrificial art, and he captures these transformations in elegant photographs. This is his most comprehensive book to date, and the most revealing. In diary entries that chart his experiences working in Scotland (his home), Canada, New Mexico, Japan, and Holland, he writes eloquently about the why and how of his magical work, articulates his fascination with change and decay, and describes the challenges of working in such volatile settings as beaches and woods in winter. By reversing Western art's tradition of creating works that will last long after the artist has gone, Goldsworthy celebrates beauty's transitory nature and willingly embraces the full cycle of life and death. Donna Seaman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved In his first major book in four years, internationally acclaimed artist Andy Goldsworthy presents a wealth of new work informed by the passage of time. Goldsworthy, who works with stone, leaves, grass, branches, snow, and other natural materials to create intensely personal artworks, uses time almost as a medium in his art: on a snow-covered Scottish hillside a huge rectangle of compacted snow becomes ever more visible as the surrounding snow melts away; clay walls dry out and crack, revealing previously invisible forms embedded within them, a sculpture of re-formed icicles is made to catch the morning sunshine. In the spectacular color photographs seen here, Goldsworthy celebrates the many ways his art is about, or evokes, the passage of time. Presenting exciting works not seen in previous books, along with revealing excerpts from Goldsworthy's working diaries, this perceptive overview—which includes an extensive illustrated chronology by Terry Friedman—will become the definitive reference on Goldsworthy's art.

Biography

ANDY GOLDSWORTHY's books include Abrams' Stone, Wood, Arch, Wall, Hand to Earth, Passage, Enclosure, and Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature. His work is regularly exhibited in Britain, France, Japan, and the United States. This new book comes in the same year that his first permanent installation in an American museum, at Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York, has its official unveiling. Goldsworthy lives with his family in Scotland. TERRY FRIEDMAN is an architectural historian who curated the first major retrospective of Goldsworthy's work.