Antony Gormley (b.1950)

Untitled (Diving Figure)

Gormley is one of Britain's best known living artists, the creator of the Angel of the North and a Turner Prize winner in 1994. Gormley's work is centred on the human figure and its relationship to the wider environment. In 1981 he began creating sculptures from his own form to express how his body is the vehicle for his experience of the world and his means to communicate that experience. The placement of these figures and the viewer's perception of them is also critical to his work.

To create sculptures such as Diving Figure Gormley was wrapped in clingfilm and covered with plaster and jute cloth. When this set he was cut out of the mould. This was then reassembled and toughened with fibreglass and resin before sheets of lead were shaped and soldered over the top. Diving Figure is one of a series of single bodycase sculptures made between 1983 and 1988.

← Back to the Collection