antony gormley.doc

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ROOM DRAWINGS, 2014

The ROOM drawings are an attempt to draw inner space, rather than represent an object as perceived in space:

"This type of perspectival rendering, where parallel lines do not converge, is often used by architects to give a solid-looing three-dimensional view of a structure! y e#tending the orthogonal lines to the edge of the page and sometimesmultiplying the perspectival matri# with paler lines around the figure, $ormley has reversed that effect so that thedepicted sculpture seems to vibrate and lose determinate boundaries!"

%#tract from &'culpting (arness& by Margaret )versen, ROOM, *ondon: +orbin ing, ./01, p! 23

NORTH LIGHT, 2014

*ie the earlier series, O(4 *)$5T, these drawings evoe fleeting moments of illumination in the darness of thebody, the earth, the ocean or deep space! The drawings are swiftly e#ecuted using a +hinese calligraphy brush and blacpigment and casein! The pigment disperses at different speeds and densities, enhancing the feelings of immersion! *ightplays a major role, acting as a foil to the weight of the ground or body, evoing the luminous beginnings of astralmatter! The wors seem to emerge, rather than be willed, into form!

TANKER DRAWINGS, 2013 2014

The &(ar drawings&6 act as a sort of counterpoint: they map a parallel and imaginary projection into and a repeated

probing of the inner dimensions of the &%#pansion wors& - dimensions of which the sculptures& e#ternal forms give usan indication, but only an incomplete measure! The impulses implied in these series of drawings, suspended in a ind oftension between density and weightlessness, darness and light, connect with the words of the great thiner of space

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$aston achelard: &)mmensity is within ourselves! )t is attached to the sort of e#pansion of being that life curbs andcaution arrests, but which starts again when we are alone! 7s soon as we become motionless, we are elsewhere8 we aredreaming in a world that is immense!&

%#tract from Martin +aiger-'mith, M%T%R, 'al9burg: $alerie Thaddaeus Ropac, ./0, p!

FRAMER DRAWINGS, 2012 2013

The thing for me here is how the &defining& nature of architectural drawing that suggests an absolute measure of a placein space can be made free by continuing the delineation! ;ar from fi#ing the image, it suggests that the body space is apossible space within space at large and could be underground, above ground or anywhere! The parado# that inattempting to &define& an absolute crystalisation of human space in space, it ends up floating in indeterminacy!

7ntony $ormley, ./0.!

FEELING MATERIAL, 2001 2012

) thin of these drawings as being the most precise mental maps, but also body diagrams! The ;eeling Materialdrawings are an attempt to evoe the body as a concentration within an energy field evolved in the +learing drawings

and it strongly relates to some sculptures where insider-lie concentrations of highly wrought wire form taut cores at thecentre of increasingly large orbital circuits!

7ntony $ormley ./01

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BODY, 2009 2011

The time of the wor is the time of its arising! The space of the wor is the given of the sheet taen as a frame oninfinity! These drawings brea the edge and mae an evocation of presence through a density in a fugitive field! Thewors attempt to render the body as a field and to feel the body not as a nowable object, but a subjective space ofbecoming! %mergence and dissolution are eerhaps weather is the best description of emotion and perhaps there is a waythat emotion itself can become weather! There is a sense of waiting that is connected with presence or the arising of

awareness! The different forms of these drawings surprises and terrifies me! They are about a loss of control and aremade through a loss of control!

7s a list, the concerns of the O(4 (R7=)?$ series could be as follows:

7n evocation of presence!

7 test of a bounding condition!

The evidence of an event!

7 density within a fugitive field!

The body as a field!

The body as an unnown space!

7liveness!

The register a moment of lived time!

7 state of becoming!

eing part of space and time: a dispersion!

@nifying internal and e#ternal!

%motion as weather!

7 register of loss of control and made through a loss of control!

=aiting!

7ntony $ormley, ./01!


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BODIES IN SPACE, DRAWINGS AND LITHOGRAPHS, 2007 2011

On the drawings: My stretched body maes a shadow within a random field of dropped oil or carbon : a test site!

7ntony $ormley, ./01

BREATHING ROOM, 2005 2010

The reathing Room drawings unusually predate the sculpture of the same name! The most recent drawings in the

series reathing Room vividly capture something of the effect of the glowing light as it appears in the gallery againstthe suddenly plunged darness of the space! The interconnecting space frames of the installation are created through theuse of lines made with a fine brush dipped in household bleach which removes the in from its paper support and maesthe negative outlines glow! This device reflects the uncertain terrain of what constitutes the installation: &The objecthovers between being architecture and being an image of architecture!& The result for the viewer, in both drawings andinstallations, is to be caught up in an indeterminacy of perspectival viewpoint!

Te#t by 7nna Mos9ynsa, from (R7=)?$ '>7+%, >ublished by M7+RO, ./0/

CLEARING, 200 2009

The A6B large +*%7R)?$ drawings from .//C-.//D lin bac especially to the inde#ical trace that brings them intobeing! %ach drawing Eand there are over one hundred to dateF inscribes the reality of a lived moment as the gesture ofthe artist&s body taes over from the mere hand&s touch! )n fact, $ormley has referred to these drawings as being "a indof choreography for the hand-arm-brain" or "just traces of activity where )&m using my mind-body as a sensor! They&realmost lie cardiograms of different vectors!" ;or him, they are also mental diagrams furnished by the body in a fluid

state! +*%7R)?$ *, *) 7?( G*H))) E.//CF, for e#ample, indicate the release of energy implied! ;ollowing thephysical rotation of the arm, they trace a spreading arc which loops in a wide circuit across the paper! ?ow, however,rather than being drawn, the fine lines are "carved" by the use of a sharp metal burin, normally used for etching! Thisactivity e#poses the weave of the paper from its pre-washed ground, and the techni


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made in his early stone sculptures such as ')? )H E0D23F A6B! The lin between etching and drawing, alwaysmalleable, becomes manifest, but here the results are uni7+%, Milan: %lecta, ./0/, pp! C0, C1

HATCH, 200 ! 2007

The 5atch drawings are e#ecuted with a burin scratching into the paper, but unlie the Rain series the rapidly scoredmars are rectilinear! These drawings connect nominally to the idea of a drawn mar - &hatching& being a shadingtechni7+%, Milan: %lecta, ./0/, pp! KC-KC

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ANILINE DYE, 1996 2003

=ater-dispersed aniline dye became $ormley&s favoured drawing medium at the beginning of the new millennium!+hemically-based, acrid and dangerous, the reddish tint of aniline is reminiscent of the colour in the final stage ofalchemy nown as rubedo or iosis Efrom the $ree root ios meaning poisonF! The use of this potent substance continueshis investigation into the effects and behaviour of different minerals and chemicals! (ropped on to the paper and thenmanipulated by brush, the visual effects caused from aniline range from the veining and spreading in =% and

+O??%+T)O?' ))) to the blotching and washing of >*7+%?T7! )n all the drawings the surface te#ture is intenselyvaried, the chemical producing unforeseen and fugitive effects of immense beauty and mystery - metaphoricallytransforming a base substance into gold! The wor appears to be struggling with embodiment and disembodiment,whether in allusions to disease or the creation of matter and its inevitable entropy! Te#t by 7nna Mos9ynsa, from7?TO?4 $ORM*%4 (R7=)?$, >ublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .//.

RANGE OF MEDIA, 1994 2000

Made during the late 0DD/s, these drawings involve the greatest range of media to date! (ifferent types of varnish aree#perimented with - polyurethane giving an opaigment is now rarely used on it&s own but where it was, as in @?(%R M4 ')? the figures arecentred on the page, contrasting strongly with the white paper around them! More generally, the pigment is used to forman effect in which the figure or shape is placed against or suced into a puddle of poured, coloured varnish! )n

+7@$5T the figure, accompanied by a human hair also trapped in the pool of orange varnish, resembles an insectimprisoned in a piece of amber! %lsewhere, other e#traordinary transformations tae place as the paper becomes acharged receptacle receiving unusual tinctures! 'oya oil reacts with shellac to create a broen, veining effect in54>%RTRO>54, 57R( '5)T and M7TT%! ;or $ormley, &the transformationLinterpenetration of the fluids& in thesewors &are evocative of biological processes - en9yme, hormone, intercellular incursions! They also allude to thegeological formation of the early rocs from hydrogen clouds&! Te#t by 7nna Mos9ynsa, from 7?TO?4 $ORM*%4

(R7=)?$, >ublished by The

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BERMUDA DRAWINGS, 1998

y the second half of the 0DD/s, $ormley found that drawing was increasingly becoming something that he would dowhile travelling, as this tended to be the only time that he &could get away from maing sculpture&! This seublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .//.

y the second half of the 0DD/s, $ormley found that drawing was increasingly becoming something that he would dowhile travelling, as this tended to be the only time that he &could get away from maing sculpture&! This seublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .//.

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NEW YORK DRAWINGS, 1997 1998

)ncreasingly A!!!B rather than connecting the body to the space of nature Eas occurs in the O(4 7?( *)$5T seriesF,

A$ormley&sB later drawings begin to demonstrate an interconnection with a more urban environment, which in turnaffects their form! 7 couple of tiny wors on paper from 0DD2, (7OT7 ) and )), signal this change! @sing the familiarmaterials of carbon and casein, the vestigial washed body silhouette now becomes over-inscribed by a series of brownlines which mar up an interrupted grid! ?ot only does this grid partially obscure the underlying figure Ewhich nowgradually appears to fade away in the watered pigmentF, it also creates a geometric pattern on the surface of the paperwhich, in its spatial composition, can be read as an architectural grille or balustrade set in front of a window, or as

abstract scaffolding! %ither way, it is not surprising to find that these urban wors, with their rectilinearity operating at afar remove from the natural, curved forms of the +oniston drawings, were actually made in the (aota uilding on

?ew 4or&s =est 'ide! The particular rhythm of the city&s architecture seems to activate the composition of the grid andcreates new possibilities for the interpenetration of body and space! +ertainly the drawings appear to anticipate both thefuture concentration on the matri# itself in the $%OM%TR4 series and $ormley&s wider interest in woring onincreasingly large scale urban architectural projects!

%#tract from 7nna Mos9ynsa, 7?TO?4 $ORM*%4: (R7=)?$ '>7+%, Milan: %lecta, ./0/, pp! K.-K

RED EARTH, 1987 1998

The drawings in this series are made from red-coloured earth collected originally by the artist from the *ot region in;rance and mi#ed with rabbit sin glue and water! lac pigment is still present - used either to shade in entire areas or

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to pic out individual elements within the composition! 'ome of the imagery imaginatively anticipates encounters withthe desert, the scale and breadth of the outbac, the appearance of aboriginal sin painting and spirit dances, as well asthe individual clay forms that would comprise ;)%*( ;OR T5% 7RT $7**%R4 O; ?%= 'O@T5 =7*%', 0D3DEhis installation of 0,0// small individually fashioned terracotta figurinesF! The graphic &imaginings& were made prior tohis first encounter with 7ustralia in 0D3D! )n fact, since his travels in )ndia in the 0D2/s, $ormley had been seeing to

test his own classic =estern frame of reference against other traditions - an impulse that was given further impetus in

the early 0D3/s by his encounter with Ioseph euys&s notion of a widened field of art and call for an anthropological art!;or $ormley this meant that putting art &to the practical service& of life in order to &mae something with power&! The useof earth has a long prehistoric tradition in terms of mar-maing, and this ties in with the artist&s notion that &drawing isa site where something has occurred geologically&! The drawings are thus a powerful repository of thought andreflection in terms of both historical and pre-historical concerns! Te#t by 7nna Mos9ynsa, from 7?TO?4 $ORM*%4

(R7=)?$, >ublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .//.

COLLAGES, 1997

)n 0DD2, $ormley made a series of forty-three collages, assembled from postcards, newsprint or photographs adheredwith >H7! 7dditional drawing was e#ecuted in charcoal, pencil or pigment with the occasional use of soya oil, olive oil,white varnish, liablo >icasso and Mantegna are shown here, while $oya and more contemporary artists arereferenced elsewhere in the series! The use of collage opens up further sets of possibilities, allowing the artist to maefree associations, to use found or imagined things, to e#periment with the &frame& of architecture and drawing, toacnowledge the wor of other artists and art forms and to e#plore &parallel worlds&!

Te#t by 7nna Mos9ynsa, from 7?TO?4 $ORM*%4 (R7=)?$, >ublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .//.

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PARAFFIN, 1997

The fluid distillation derived from petroleum is mi#ed with blue and blac pigment, sometimes offset by a moreconcentrated blac pigment and by a generous pouring of soya oil which acts as an aureole around the central greyareas! Themes of spirit and materialisation come to the fore here as the spreading fluid creates ambiguous, hauntingshapes within each drawing! The initial idea behind this series was a &yoe or an area of potential surrounded by

albumen or life-giving power! (rawing, pigment and medium are presented as independent agents, echoing conscious,matter and the living body!& Te#t by 7nna Mos9ynsa, from 7?TO?4 $ORM*%4 (R7=)?$, >ublished by Theritish Museum >ress, .//.

CHICORY COFFEE, 199 1996

y the mid 0DD/s, $ormley was e#perimenting with chicory coffee substitute as a medium, a li


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BODY AND LIGHT, 1990 1996

7s $ormley found himself increasingly on the move, he resorted to small sheets of 'omerset =eave torn into si#teenthsfor greater portability! The blac pigment and casein was now dispersed in water to create a washed effect, similar towatercolour! 'ome of the finely outlined images from 0DD1 unusually employ pen as well as brush! Most of thedrawings were made in the *ae (istrict, at a house on +oniston =ater which the $ormley&s have visited regularlysince 0D31! *ie the 7rdpatric images, some are redolent of specific places8 here the garden, trees, barn and fieldssurrounding the house! This time the landscape is sensed at night with the nocturnal growth patterns of plantsgraphically imagined! Other seublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .///

SAN ANTONIO DRAWINGS, 199

These drawings are derived from a suite of twelve individual wors which were made and e#hibited in 'an 7ntonio,Te#as, in 0DDK! The suite was made in response to a residency invitation from the 7rt>ace organisation during late(ecember 0DD1 and early Ianuary 0DDK! $ormley used this time as an opportunity to wor in a free yet focused manneron his drawing while also responding to the particular features which seemed to characterise the local place - the

relationship of the river, railway and road8 the weather fronts8 the transmissions of cargo and migrations8 the flatness,openness and presence of the sy! )n an interview with 7nnette (iMeo +arlo99i in Iuly that year, he e#plained the

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whole project as &an attempt to undermine dualistic thining - the idea that here is part of there, in being everywhere - anidea of maing the distance intimate, recognising that notions of identity and place can be defined by ideas of hori9on&!=hile the images in the drawings reflect ongoing concerns that had previously occupied the artist - such as &describingthe limits of physical space which can then be used by the viewer to test conceptual limits& or &maing an attempt toorient the body in space& - the materials used to mae them indicate the e#tent of his e#perimentation and interests at

this time! +ertain substances, lie a slice of melon, sit entirely on the surface of the paper, some are absorbed within it

EoilF, and others sit amongst the paper&s fibres EcharcoalF! +%?TR% was made from a brand of bottled pimento*ouisiana sauce! esides the attraction of the colour, the bottle appealed as &an ejaculatory implement, you could shaeit and it would spurt and mae a trajectory through the air before it became paint&! )n these respects, the series as awhole epitomises $ormley&s entire approach by this point! &;or me, drawing isn&t about maing pictures, it is abouttesting ideas and testing materials as well!& 5e has since described the period as &a time to concentrate on drawing! =hat

these drawings try and do is codify, diagrammatise, isolate my concerns with space and image in drawing6 with thedrawing as an event - a splash, a moment captured and focused by the "frame" of drawing!&

Te#t by 7nna Mos9ynsa, from 7?TO?4 $ORM*%4 (R7=)?$, >ublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .//.

BODILY FL#IDS, 19$ 1992

$ormley&s use of his own bodily fluids as a medium for drawing spanned a number of years, from the mid-0D3/s

through to the early 0DD/s! To $ormley, blood and semen are life materials which in their giving imply sacrifice!Thresholds are crossed &between inner and outer and between celebration and pollution&! That which has been removedfrom the body is nonetheless memorialised in the wor: &pain and pleasure, the putrefied and the sublimated&! Themembrane of the paper is seen as a place of becoming, of both form and meaning! )n the transfer of such particularlyresonant fluids, the drawing becomes the site of new life, possibility and energy! The first drawing in this series,@?T)T*%(, 0D33 employs a jet of blood that spontaneously issued from a burst capillary on the artist&s left middle

finger to create an abstract trail across the paper! )n others, puddles or drips of blood andLor semen are allowed to fallupon moistened paper, creating an e#plosive, cosmic effect! Te#t by 7nna Mos9ynsa, from 7?TO?4 $ORM*%4(R7=)?$, >ublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .//.

LINSEED OIL WORKS, 198 1990

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This e#tensive group of wors from the second half of the 0D3/s sees the dominance of the warm, honey tones oflinseed! Released from its conventional role as binder and operating as a free agent, the linseed oil often tends visuallyto dominate the smaller areas of blac pigment and charcoal or is used as a coloured stain or broen ground againstwhich the blac elements are drawn! The oil, dropped from the bottle onto the paper in small dots or left to puddle onthe surface, creates a free-form shape against which further images appear! )n many instances, the density of the oil

soas through the support, maing the te#ture particularly viscous and tactile and creating a warm aroma that saturates

the paper! The element of chance involved in the pouring of the oil allows for greater freedom than was possible in thetighter application of many of the earlier pigmented wors, while the yellow-orange coloration of the linseed coincideswith the colour found in $ormley&s cast-iron sculptures of this period E0D32-3F! The imagery itself also becomes morefree-form! ;loating figures and amoeba-lie shapes suggest shifting states of becoming, while coupled pairs andembryonic forms reflect ideas of gestation which inevitably came to mind as $ormley&s young family was completed

with the arrival of his third child >aloma in 0D32! Te#t by 7nna Mos9ynsa, from 7?TO?4 $ORM*%4 (R7=)?$,>ublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .//.

BLACK PIGMENT, OIL % CHARCOAL, 19$4 19$9

These blac pigment, oil and charcoal drawings made between 0D3K and 0D33 and generally on a smaller scale, weree#ecuted on a heavy density etching paper, 'omerset =eave, which $ormley first discovered as a support in 0D31 andwhich he has consistently used since! *arge sheets of paper were folded and torn to scale, either in echam, 'outh *ondon! The physical darness of these drawings contributes to a melancholic gravitas in terms ofatmosphere and tone, paralleling the dar interior of $ormley&s lead sculptures! Te#t by 7nna Mos9ynsa, from

7?TO?4 $ORM*%4 (R7=)?$, >ublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .//.

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I&O COLLABORATION, 19$4

These large, landscape-format drawings made principally on the wall in pencil with some traces of pastel and charcoal,were produced in >echam when the artist was looing after his toddler son! The infant )vo would scribble on the pagealongside his father! $ormley, having drawn the main image, would choose a title, write it out as a single word alongthe base of the drawing, then add selections from a dictionary definition in pencil! =hile the choice of the individualwords appears significant in terms of his developing sculptural concerns, it also reflects $ormley&s haiu-inspiredwriting practice seen in the te#ts and word chains of his setchboos at this time, and in some of his later published

pieces! The preference for short single-word titles is reflected in several of the lead sculptures of this period which have

similar names, including *ift E0D3F, Rise E0D3-1F, >eer E0D31F and >roof E0D31F! )t is noticeable how some of these&collaborative& drawings include nature in a very direct way - sublished by The ritish Museum >ress, .//.!

EARLY DRAWINGS, 1980 198!

(ating from 0D30 to 0D3, these drawings are characterised by a fluid charcoal outline! Thic, heavy blac pigment is mi#ed with

linseed oil and vigorously applied to the surface with a hogshair brush! The drawings involve a very physical engagement, the wall

acting as a hard, resilient surface to push against! They cover a transitional time in $ormley&s career, including a period of living in a

sarsons, and then from 0D3. onwards, the move to a new

home in >echam, 'outh *ondon, after the arrival of their first son, )vo! The drawings are made in the domestic environment, the

human subject coinciding with the first lead figures $ormley casts from his own body such as T5R%% =74' E0D30F, also made in

the ing&s +ross room, and *7?(, '%7 7?( 7)R E0D3.F! 7s a whole, the seublished by The ritish

Museum >ress, .//.

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