Ref: Antony Gormley - Angel of the North
For prints please contact chris.smith@twentytrees.co.uk
Angel of the North (Life-Size Maquette)
Note from the Sotheby's Selling Catalogue:
"The present 1:10 scale maquette for Antony Gormley's Angel of the North in Gateshead, England, was cast in iron and marks a definitive stage in the development of the sculpture from human to gargantuan proportions. Arguably the most widely recognised public sculpture in the UK, the Angel of the North has become an icon for the modern, industrial age. Cast directly from the artist's body then fabricated in Cor-Ten steel by a team of metalworkers and engineers, the Angel of the North is both testament to individual conception and monument to collective achievement. Indeed, the sculpture's powerful corporeality, above all social or spiritual connotation, imbues the work with an immediacy which has secured its place in the pantheon of contemporary sculpture and, perhaps more importantly, in popular imagination.
The Angel of the North takes as its principal concern the concept of the human condition and man's will to surmount the barriers of terrestrial existence, thus experiencing the realm of the celestial, the supernatural. The vast wings clearly identify the figure as an angel whilst their braced, skeletal structure recalls that of a modern aircraft. These evocations of flight suggest both lofty, spiritual transcendence and the technological phenomenon of modern aviation. Moreover, the sculpture makes obvious allusions to the figure of Christ on the crucifix the extended arms/ wings symbolising both the fettered soul and the emancipated spirit. Like the monolithic Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, their all-encompassing embrace comes to represent the eternal.
Prominent in Gormley's work are the tensions between the sacred and the profane, invoking contemporary debates concerning the value of science and technology over religion. The Angel of the North, a figure without facial expression or identifiable features, has been manufactured by man as an archetype born with the facility to emulate what was once the preserve of the Gods. By extension, the dichotomy between the earthly and the supernatural is emphasised through the sculpture's truth to its material. Iron, a natural precipitate of Earth's geologic processes, has been equated with human blood, its sanguine colour instilling life into the material. The ferric skin which enshrouds the figure evolves with the vicissitudes of time mimicking man's ageing process.
The Angel of the North raises existential questions concerning the permanence of mankind and of memory, which man aims to secure less through faith than through modern science. Though titanic and uncompromising in form, the Angel of the North exists as a vestige of an industrial process and will surely weather and corrode. The absurdity of our time is that, whatever progress is made, man still depends upon the providence of an angel."
The majority of the photographs in the Scultpture Gallery are of sculptures exhibited at Sotheby's annual selling exhibition at Chatsworth: Beyond Limits. Now in its fifth year it always includes an eclectic mix of old and new.
Some of these photographs are personal favourites of mine. A number are framed and hang at home. Where possible I've included information about the sculpture. For further information please contact me: chris.smith@twentytrees.co.uk.