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ANTONY GORMLEY | Standing Ground
Estimate
500,000 - 700,000 GBP
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Description
- Antony Gormley
- Standing Ground
- lead, fibreglass, plaster and air
- 198 by 200 by 33 cm. 78 by 78 7/8 by 13 in.
- Executed in 1986-87.
Provenance
Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2014
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2014
Exhibited
Stockholm, Galerie Nordenhake, Skulptur, September - October 1991
Literature
John Hutchinson, E.H. Gombrich and Lela B. Njatin, Eds, Antony Gormley, London 1995 and 2000, p. 121, illustrated in colour
Michael Mack, Ed., Antony Gormley, Göttingen 2007, p. 507, illustrated in colour
Martin Caiger-Smith, Antony Gormley, New York 2017, pp. 238-39, illustrated in colour
Michael Mack, Ed., Antony Gormley, Göttingen 2007, p. 507, illustrated in colour
Martin Caiger-Smith, Antony Gormley, New York 2017, pp. 238-39, illustrated in colour
Condition
Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly lighter in the original. Condition: Please refer to the department for a professional condition report.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
“My work has come out of a moment of concentrated being. Not an illustration of it: a registration… I would like you to feel that there is something coming out from under the skin.” Antony Gormley in conversation with Udo Kittelmann in: Exh. Cat., Cologne, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Total Strangers, 1997, p. 27.
Standing Ground comes from the very first phase of my ‘body-case’ works and is made from a mould of my body strengthened with fibreglass and covered in radiation-proof lead. I think of it as a scarecrow for the nuclear age, but it is also an attempt to link a space of an individual body with space at large.
My work is to make bodies into vessels that both contain and occupy space. Standing Ground, like all of the works in the ‘Early Single Lead Body-case’ series (1983–1988), has surfaces that are articulated by vertical and horizontal lines similar to the mapping of a geographer’s globe. The horizontal of the arms mirrors the horizon and suggests a relationship between the physical bounding condition of the body and the perceptual boundary of the horizon.
To a greater or lesser extent, all my work attempts to collapse the mind-body division by suggesting that there is a continuum between the space of consciousness and space at large, bridged by the body. The air and darkness within the body-case is therefore as important as the air and space that surrounds it: intimating a connection between the darkness of the body and the darkness of deep space.
Antony Gormley, 2020
Standing Ground comes from the very first phase of my ‘body-case’ works and is made from a mould of my body strengthened with fibreglass and covered in radiation-proof lead. I think of it as a scarecrow for the nuclear age, but it is also an attempt to link a space of an individual body with space at large.
My work is to make bodies into vessels that both contain and occupy space. Standing Ground, like all of the works in the ‘Early Single Lead Body-case’ series (1983–1988), has surfaces that are articulated by vertical and horizontal lines similar to the mapping of a geographer’s globe. The horizontal of the arms mirrors the horizon and suggests a relationship between the physical bounding condition of the body and the perceptual boundary of the horizon.
To a greater or lesser extent, all my work attempts to collapse the mind-body division by suggesting that there is a continuum between the space of consciousness and space at large, bridged by the body. The air and darkness within the body-case is therefore as important as the air and space that surrounds it: intimating a connection between the darkness of the body and the darkness of deep space.
Antony Gormley, 2020