.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Executed in 2014, BARE IV belongs to Antony Gormley’s series of ‘Cast Blockworks’. It takes the form of a crouched figure, composed of interlocking cast iron geometries. Begun in 2005, the ‘Cast Blockworks’ evolved from the artist’s earlier series of ‘Blockworks’, which used small pixel-like units in six pre-determined rectangular sizes. Over the years, however, he began to use increasingly larger blocks, reconfiguring the human form as a dialogue between mass and space. Applying principles borrowed from architecture and Euclidean geometry, Gormley rejects the notion of the body as an object, seeking instead to understand it as a place. The present work demonstrates his ability to evoke emotion and empathy through the most economical of means: the crouched posture conjures a powerful and universal sense of vulnerability. With a paper study held in the Hall Collection, Derneburg, the work has featured in solo exhibitions at the Forte di Belvedere, Florence and SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen. Another example from the series—BARE V—is permanently installed in the administrative headquarters of the Archdiocese of Munich.
Gormley explains that the deployment of larger blocks gave way to ‘the realisation that the way one block sat on top of another could carry the feeling of inhabiting a body.’ The ‘Cast Blockworks’, he writes, use ‘the dynamics of stacking, cantilever and balance to achieve a stable structure that is still dynamic.’ The challenge ‘is to find a way to employ this architectonic language to provoke empathetic feeling. All of these pieces attempt to treat the body as a condition: being, not doing’ (A. Gormley, artist’s website). Speaking of the present work, curator and art historian Söke Dinkla writes that ‘Crouching is a posture we understand intuitively; in the history of sculpture, it was a popular motif, particularly in the 19th century. In Gormley’s work, BARE IV embodies the contemporary condition of humankind. Despite its solidity and rationally ordered structure, it appears exposed, naked, unprotected, and yearning for security and community’ (S. Dinkla, Antony Gormley: Learning to Be, exh. cat. SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen, 2021, p. 129).
Gormley explains that the deployment of larger blocks gave way to ‘the realisation that the way one block sat on top of another could carry the feeling of inhabiting a body.’ The ‘Cast Blockworks’, he writes, use ‘the dynamics of stacking, cantilever and balance to achieve a stable structure that is still dynamic.’ The challenge ‘is to find a way to employ this architectonic language to provoke empathetic feeling. All of these pieces attempt to treat the body as a condition: being, not doing’ (A. Gormley, artist’s website). Speaking of the present work, curator and art historian Söke Dinkla writes that ‘Crouching is a posture we understand intuitively; in the history of sculpture, it was a popular motif, particularly in the 19th century. In Gormley’s work, BARE IV embodies the contemporary condition of humankind. Despite its solidity and rationally ordered structure, it appears exposed, naked, unprotected, and yearning for security and community’ (S. Dinkla, Antony Gormley: Learning to Be, exh. cat. SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen, 2021, p. 129).