ANTONY GORMLEY: GROUND AT VOORLINDEN MUSEUM
ANTONY GORMLEY: GROUND
AT VOORLINDEN MUSEUM
May 26, 2022
- September 25, 2022
Antony Gormley shows
our common ground at Voorlinden This summer, Antony Gormley (1950) takes over
the museum and estate of Voorlinden. The British artist is renowned worldwide
for his sculptures and installations that investigate the relationship between
the human body and the space around us. GROUND brings together work spanning
Gormley’s career, from his early lead sculptures to new installations that are
custom made for Voorlinden. The groundbreaking show is the biggest solo
exhibition Voorlinden has ever presented and will be on display from 26 May
through 25 September 2022.
Antony
Gormley is well known for his works in the public realm, including the iconic
Angel of the North in Gateshead in Northern England and his crouching body form
Exposure near Lelystad in the Netherlands. The artist approaches the age-old
subject of the human body in his own unique, yet universal and philosophical
way, building on art history and conceptual sculpture of the 1960s and 1970s.
In the exhibition GROUND, he uses both his own body and that of the visitor to
ask fundamental questions about where human beings stand in relation to nature
and the cosmos.
Director Suzanne Swarts: ‘Antony is
one of those rare artists who has built up a timeless oeuvre with a universal
visual language, yet very own signature. Sculpture and the human body are his
starting point for an endless cosmological investigation that concerns, touches
and encourages to reflect.’
Antony Gormley states: ‘Sculpture
of the body is no longer a medium of memorial and idealisation but a context in
which human being can be examined. Sculpture is no longer representational: it
is an instrument of investigation and questioning. I have called this
exhibition GROUND to make this open invitation of sculpture clear. Without the
viewer there is no show, without the gallery there is no context. The joy of
this kind of exhibition is to allow the richness of the context itself to
become activated by sculpture. For me, the body of the viewer is often the
activating principle in a ‘ground’ of contemplation: the works become catalysts
for awareness and grounds for physical and imaginative inhabitation.
In a time of
chaos and a creeping feeling that everything is breaking down, we need art more
than ever. It gives us space of stillness and silence in which we can discover
shy bits of our own nature, but also wells of resilience and hope. With art we
have tools to generate, through sense and first[1]hand experience, the ground
for a truth that we might believe in. Never has the beholder’s share been more
important.’
First times in the Netherlands
GROUND offers
an overview of Antony Gormley’s extensive oeuvre, from the very early Open Door
(1975) and his early lead sculptures to some of his most recent installations
like Clearing (2022). The exhibition includes artworks from the Voorlinden
collection that are on display for the first time in the Netherlands. This
includes Passage (2016), a 12-metre-long human-shaped tunnel that offers a
journey into darkness. Another Dutch premiere is Breathing Room (2010), in
which you can experience standing in a three-dimensional drawing in space
Head of
Exhibitions Barbara Bos: ‘Through sculpture, Gormley invites us all to explore,
experience and question our place in the universe.’
Groundbreaking works
In Amazonian
Field (1992), 24,000 terracotta figures stare at you, confronting you with
fundamental questions concerning your existence in and relation to the world.
Extending outside, Critical Mass (1995) puts sculpture in dialogue with the
museum’s extensive grounds: 60 solid cast iron bodyforms will be placed in
relation with the trees, lawns, canals and reedbeds of the park. Gormley sees
these ‘capturings’ of basic body positions as ‘industrially made fossils
dropped into the Voorlinden’s verdant context, calling on embedded body-memory
and our potential for feeling’
Director Suzanne Swarts: ‘You can’t
simply see Antony Gormley’s art. You’ll have to experience it. As a visitor,
you really have to undergo the physical force of the exhibition GROUND to
understand what the artist wants to say.’
Special bond
with Voorlinden GROUND will be one of the most ambitious exhibitions in the
history of Voorlinden, the first to occupy both the museum and the surrounding
estate. ‘As a museum, we want to do everything we can to offer Antony Gormley
the stage he deserves’, says director Suzanne Swarts. The exhibition is
specifically made for Voorlinden, with site specific installations and
sculptures that form an intimate dialogue with the light, architecture and
landscape. ‘Voorlinden is a wonderful place to think about nature and our
nature in nature, and our need to form things: landscapes, bodies and
knowledge’, says Gormley. The museum has a long and close relationship with the
artist, who in 1994 made a sculpture for the Clingenbosch sculpture garden. Six
works from the museum collection are part of the exhibition.
PASSAGE, 2016,
6 mm Weathering Steel,
Dimensions: 202 × 72.2 × 1198 cm.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
6 mm Weathering Steel
Dimensions: 202 x 72,2 x 1198 cm
Collection Voorlinden
Photograph: Antoine van Kaam
© Antony Gormley 2022. All Rights Reserved
AMAZONIAN FIELD, 1992,
Terracotta
Dimensions: Variable Size: Approx. 24,000 Elements, Each 4-40 cm.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
Terracotta
Variable Size: Approx. 24,000 Elements, Each 4-40 cm
© The Artist
OVER THE EARTH, 1987-89
Lead, Fibreglass, Plaster and Air,
Dimensions: 38 × 208 × 190 cm.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
Ground, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, the
Netherlands, 2022.
Early Lead Works, Installation View.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam
CRITICAL MASS II, 1995
Cast Iron, 60 Life-Size Elements;
Dimensions: Dimensions Variable.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam
CRITICAL MASS II, 1995
Cast Iron, 60 Life-Size Elements;
Dimensions: Dimensions Variable.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam
MY CLOTHES (1980/2020)
Photograph: Lidian van Megen
© Antony Gormley 2022. All Rights Reserved
WORKBOOKS
Drawings, 1975-2016.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
WORKBOOKS
Drawings and Maquettes, 1975-2016.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
Lead, Fibreglass and Plaster
Dimensions: 192.7 x 172 x 36 cm
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam
© Antony Gormley 2022. All Rights Reserved
WORKBOOKS
Drawings, 1975-2016.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
.jpg)
.jpg)
EXPANSION FIELD, 2014,
4 mm Corten Steel and Air, 10 Elements;
Dimensions: Variable Dimensions.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam
Ground brings together work spanning Gormley’s career, from
his early lead sculptures to new installations that are custom made for Voorlinden:
‘Sculpture is
no longer a medium of memorial and idealisation but a context in which human
being can be examined. Sculpture is no longer representational: it is an
instrument of investigation and questioning. I have called this exhibition Ground to make this open invitation of sculpture
clear. Without the viewer there is no show, without the gallery there is no
context. The joy of this kind of exhibition is to allow the richness of the context
itself to become activated by sculpture. For me, the body of the viewer is
often the activating principle in a ‘ground’ of contemplation: the works become
catalysts for awareness and grounds for physical and imaginative inhabitation.
In a time of
chaos and a creeping feeling that everything is breaking down, we need art more
than ever. It gives us space of stillness and silence in which we can discover
shy bits of our own nature, but also wells of resilience and hope. With art we
have tools to generate, through sense and first-hand experience, the ground for
a truth that we might believe in. Never has the beholder’s share been more
important.’
Ground offers an overview
of Antony Gormley’s extensive oeuvre, from the very early Open Door (1975) and his early lead sculptures to
some of his most recent installations like Clearing
VIII (2022). The exhibition includes artworks from the
Voorlinden collection that are on display for the first time in the
Netherlands. This includes Passage (2016),
a 12-metre-long human-shaped tunnel that offers a
journey into darkness. Another Dutch premiere is Breathing
Room (2010), in which you can experience standing in a
three-dimensional drawing in space.
ANTONY GORMLEY IN EXPANSION FIELD 2014
Photograph: Lidian van Megen
© Antony Gormley 2022. All Rights Reserved
Aluminium Tube 25 x 25 mm, Phosphor H15 and Plastic Spigots
Dimensions: 482.6 x 1693 x 895.1 cm
Collection Voorlinden, Wassenaar
Photograph: Antoine van Kaam
© Antony Gormley 2022. All Rights Reserved
CLEARING VIII, 2022
12.7 mm Square Section 16 swg Aluminium Tube,
Dimensions: Dimensions Variable.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
WORKBOOKS
Drawings and Maquettes, 1975-2016.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
A CORNER FOR KASIMIR, 1992
Lead, Fibreglass, Plaster, Air,
Dimensions: 193 × 160 × 80 cm.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
WORKBOOKS
Drawings, 1975-2016.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
CHROMOSOME, 1984,
Lead, Zinc and Water,
Dimensions: 46 × 200 × 120 cm.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam
CO - ORDINATE VII, 2022
6 mm Square Section Mild Steel Bar, One Vertical, One Horizonal Line.
Photograph by Antoine van Kaam.
ANTONY GORMLEY
Antony
Gormley is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public
artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space. His work
has developed the potential opened up by sculpture since the 1960s through a
critical engagement with both his own body and those of others in a way that
confronts fundamental questions of where human beings stand in relation to
nature and the cosmos. Gormley continually tries to identify the space of art
as a place of becoming in which new behaviours, thoughts and feelings can arise.
Gormley’s work has been widely exhibited
throughout the UK and internationally with exhibitions at National Gallery
Singapore, Singapore (2021); Schauwerk Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen (2021); the
Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019); Delos, Greece (2019); Uffizi Gallery,
Florence (2019); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2019); Long Museum,
Shanghai (2017); National Portrait Gallery, London (2016); Forte di Belvedere,
Florence (2015); Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (2014); Centro Cultural Banco do
Brasil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia (2012); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg
(2012); The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (2011); Kunsthaus Bregenz,
Austria (2010); Hayward Gallery, London (2007); Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (1993)
and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (1989). Permanent public
works include the Angel of the North (Gateshead, England), Another Place
(Crosby Beach, England), Inside Australia (Lake Ballard, Western Australia),
Exposure (Lelystad, The Netherlands) and Chord (MIT - Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA).
Gormley was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994, the
South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, the Bernhard Heiliger Award for
Sculpture in 2007, the Obayashi Prize in 2012 and the Praemium Imperiale in 2013.
In 1997 he was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) and was made a
knight in the New Year’s Honours list in 2014. He is an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Institute of British Architects, an Honorary Doctor of the University of
Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge. Gormley has
been a Royal Academician since 2003.
Antony Gormley was born in London in 1950.
https://www.antonygormley.com/resources/profile
