Customer Reviews

Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature

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This coffee table-type book is stunning and very appealing to anyone who is interested in nature and art. I would recommend it as an excellent gift book although I purchased it for myself. I plan to use it as a resource for my classroom art lessons (elementary level).

This book is truely inspirational. It is one you will go back to time and again. It is soothing when you feel stressed. I would not part with it. It makes a great gift for anyone who appreciates nature or art.

If you've come this far, get this book- you are lucky to have discovered Andy Goldsworthy. And sit down before lifting the cover. The book is a testament to Goldsworthy's unique vision of his environment and skill as an artist and challenges you to believe that the seemingly impossible is possible. Not only are the sculptures genius, but the photographs are beautifully composed and the collection is mind blowing.
You can do a google search on Goldsworthy and see the same pictures but it in no way compares to having the collection in an oversized book on your lap and being able to show your friends as you say, "you will not believe this!"

Wow- some of the most beautiful photos of Goldsworthy's work. This collection has quite a variety of subject and spans many years. Truly exquisite environmentally friendly nature art. This is a great coffee table book that gets fought over by our artistic and non-artistic friends alike.

Goldsworthy is one of a kind. I got this book when I was 17, and it changed both the way I see art and the way I see the world.

I purchased this book when I was at the Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey. Goldsworthy has always been one of my "heros" but I had know idea he had books! I had seen his work in my old sculpture text and a documentary. This book was instantly part of my "treasured art text" library. The photography is superb. A wonderful match to Goldsworthys work. The text is an eloquent and sometimes contemplative commentary by the artist. I have no idea why it never occurred to me that the artist would document his work in book form! Little slow on the uptake for this reader. I immediately looked online line and purchased several more Goldsworthy books for my library. Surprisingly enough, I got a few good deals on used books. Who would part with them. A good deal on the price or not, if you love Goldsworthy, enviromental art or just want to see some vivid breathtaking photography, this is one of the best.

Mr. Goldsworthy's art is most remarkable for its ephemeral qualities, and the immense patience required to make beautiful works of art that may last for only minutes. Hours and often days are spent creating fragile works that may be instantly destroyed. Artist's notes include mention of errant dogs and tractors erasing nearly completed works.

For myself, these pages offer lessons not only in creativity, but also in patience and the importance of enjoying the present. Only an artist who enjoys the creative process above the end-product could attempt the fragile creations presented herein. Mr. Goldsworthy's creations offer a metaphor on how we might choose to live our own lives: enjoying every moment for its own merit, not merely working toward a future that itself will not last forever.

Speaking as a layperson, this is the most influential art collection that I have seen in many years. I have never shown it to anyone without an overwhelmingly interested and positive response.

Andy Goldsworthy is a genius. I can't think of another late 20th century artist whose work is so enormously accessible and so hugely rewarding. In "A Collaboration with Nature," Goldsworthy shows us the miracles he has wrought with the simplest materials he finds in front of him: mere stones, water, leaves, branches, mud, and thorns, all "found objects," become the sundry mediums through which Goldsworthy works his visual sorcery.

Just a few of dozens of high points in the book:

- A graceful circle on the ground, created with brown leaves on the outer perimeter, warming to red, then orange, then yellow leaves toward the center;

- A "slate crack line" created when Goldsworthy carefully arranged pieces of slate so that the edges formed a seeming "crack" in the pile;

- Three "statues" made of balanced ovoid rocks in the middle of a snow-covered stream, each appearing to be something like well-rounded Giacomettis;

- A snowball eerily suspended in and supported by the trees which surround it;

- A rectangle of snow, in the middle of which Goldsworthy has carefully carved concentric, successively shallower circles so that the light gleams from the center but gets dimmer and dimmer with each larger circle;

- A sycamore branch placed on a bed of snow, juxtaposed with the same sycamore branch stripped of bark and placed on a bed of leaves--the first is dark against white, and the second is white against dark;

- An arching series of ice triangles, each of which has been painstakingly stuck to the next and balanced on a moss-covered rock--this looks almost like a glass wing of some sort.

I could go on and on by covering every single page in the book, but I'll leave it to you to find out for yourself what a visual feast Goldsworthy provides for the eyes--and what interesting mental exercise he provides for the mind of the observant viewer.

This is well worth the price of a big coffee table art book. Most of the people who see this book ask "how did he do that?" Indeed, it is amazing how Goldsworthy is able to play with nature to reflect his artistic visions, while still showing a reverence for his medium. He creates art where he finds inspiration, without any tools other than what he finds on site. These photographs are beautiful mementos of his ephemeral artwork.

Whether you are an art enthusiast or not, this book is a must have for those that appreciate not only art, but beauty in life, nature, and the spirit. Andy Goldsworthy cleverly manipulates the legos of nature and creates a myriad of dynamic and simplistic designs that show his spirit. You will be "wow'd" by this book. It would make a great gift for any occasion or age.