Andy Goldsworthy is the artist I have chosen to do my critical evaluation on. Goldsworthy is one the most interesting artists I have enjoyed looking at his work. As a person and an artist he seems at peace at what he is working on. He said that whenever he doesn’t work for more than a week he doesn’t feel like he is being him self any more. He is someone else. And when he doesn’t for more three weeks at a time and has to give a lecture, he feels that he talking about someone else. Goldsworthy likes to be alone; he says he enjoys being alone. He likes to push his artwork to a near collapse point, and there is a very beautiful balance in that state. At some point in a video I am looking at for my evaluation, he was building a spider web piece, hanging from a tree. The piece looked very beautiful and almost complete, but a minute later it collapses to the ground. It made me realize how beautiful decay sometimes is. His work appears simple, which gives it this surreal feeling. With his pieces he feels as if he has touched the heart of the place, he said part of understanding the beauty of the working is seeing things you haven’t seen before. Goldsworthy’s piece at the National gallery of Art titles Roof is very interesting. Half circular rounded shapes made out of stone appear to be in absolute harmony with the landscape around it. You look at through a glass case, which gives the feeling that its being protected. The stones are really well put together, but I witnessed what Goldsworthy talked about in the video about pushing the artwork close the point of collapsing. For some reason I felt that the stones would slide out of place at any moment, but they didn’t. And that’s the beauty; it’s the risk the artist is taking in his work. In my evaluation I will be using two of his books “Collaboration with Nature” and “Time” which includes some of his very important pieces. Goldsworthy is one artist that took all his work outdoors and created a new feel to sculpture. His works appears to be one with nature, in terms of using materials from the landscape he is around. Most importantly not disturbing the landscape.
