Drawing: Antony Gormley

In this first comprehensive overview of his drawing practice from 1980 to the present, artist and sculptor Antony Gormley reflects on the ideas, processes and histories behind his craft. ‘What is drawing?’ the artist asks in the prologue to Drawing: Antony Gormley. ‘What does it take to draw?’ This book, the first to provide a complete overview of four decades of Gormley’s drawing practice, offers a window into his vision and working methods from 1980 to the present. His drawings – done mostly at night, ‘when it is easier to withdraw into the inner realm’ – represent experimental journeys of the soul, providing an intimate counterpoint to his landmark installations. Drawing: Antony Gormley is an alternative chronology of the creative output of one of the most critically respected artists working today, told through four decades of drawing. The drawings are organized into themes – from ‘Early Drawings’ and ‘Loose Earth’ to ‘Cosmic’ and ‘Learning to Think’ – and punctuated by Gormley’s own thoughts and reflections, in his own words. New essays by novelist Daisy Hildyard, art historian W.J.T. Mitchell, art theorist Margaret Iversen and mycologist-of-the-moment Merlin Sheldrake also provide thoughtful and occasionally moving responses to the work. This book offers an accessible overview of Gormley’s drawings, providing creative inspiration to those who would like to pick up a pen – or linseed oil, or milk, or blood, all of which Gormley has used – for the first time, or anyone setting off on a journey ‘into the unarmed parts of our internal landscape, or out into the unknown’. After all, as Gormley reminds us, ‘a day passed without drawing is a day lost’.