Andy Goldsworthy:
Stonework in America

Exhibition Statement

In conjunction with the celebration of the Schneider Museum of Art’s 10th Anniversary, the museum was pleased to present the outstanding environmental art work of Andy Goldsworthy.

Andy Goldsworthy (b.1956) is a British sculptor who works in the landscape to create objects that, like nature, change with time. Andy Goldsworthy: Stone Work in America investigates the artist’s on-going relationship to nature and specifically, stone, one of the key building materials of our physical world. Since the late 1970’s, Goldsworthy has been using organic materials such as earth, stone, leaves, water, snow, ice and petals as sculptural elements, freely accepting the changing conditions that weather and time has upon them. The exhibition concentrated on Stone, as it is one of the materials most integral to Goldsworthy’s work and one of the essential structures in nature.

Stone represents an element which is immovable and specific to place and upon which one can see the marks of time. Works with stone were broadly interpreted in the exhibition and included: stone with leaves, stone with water, stone with sand, stone with petals; all an exploration of the ways stone inform us about nature. Different locales where Goldsworthy has made important works with stone are Japan, Britain, Australia; however, this exhibition was comprised of works he had recently made in the United States (San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Santa Barbara, Central Park in New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania). In addition, the exhibition included examples from Goldsworthy’s major commissions at Runnymeade Sculpture farm, California, and at Lautnier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, Missouri. By concentrating on Goldsworthy’s work in Stone in different locales, one could see the connections between disparate works, and understand the artist’s consistent investigation. In addition to a wealth of photographs, each of which is a unique print photographed by the artist, the exhibition included a group of torn stones – Goldsworthy’s experiment with heat to transform stone into liquid-cracked stones, clay works made in cooperation with Barry Georgeson, a well-known British clay artist, and a series of small clay-wrapped stones. Finally, the exhibition included drawings or studies for wall commissions in the United States, preparatory drawings of works in progress, as well as drawings made by combining earth with ice or snow that melts to mark the page. Excerpts from Goldsworthy’s writings on Stone typeset on wall panels completed the exhibition. Flow of Earth, a 30-minute documentary produced by the BBC on Goldsworthy provided an opportunity for the public to hear the artist speak about his work and to witness the excitement of his working process.

Goldsworthy’s work has been the subject of several museum surveys in Japan and in Europe. This was the first touring exhibition of his work within the U.S. In January 1995, his first major survey exhibition was presented at the San Jose Museum of Art. The artist’s work was the subject of several recent books at the time that included A Collaboration With Nature, Hand to Earth (Harry N. Abrams), Touching North and Ice and Snow.

This exhibition was organized by Cheryl Haines and Mary Sabbatino of the Haines Gallery in San Francisco.

Back to Past Exhibitions