Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy (born 25 July 1956) is an English sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculptures and land art situated in natural or urban settings.
Also recorded as Andi Gōruzuwājī · Andrew Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy

Bride of Frankenstein from Williston, VT, United States of America · Andy Goldsworthy de Young installation · CC BY 2.0
- Name
- Andy Goldsworthy
- Born
- 25 July 1956
- Birthplace
- Cheshire, England
- Spouse
- Judith Gregson (divorced)
- Field
- Sculpture, photography
- Movement
- Environmental art, land art
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Occupation
- photographer · sculptor · land artist · environmentalist · artist · environmental artist · installation artist
- Fields
- land art · landscape painting
- Movements
- environmental art
- Known for
- Refuges d'art
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Andy Goldsworthy (born 25 July 1956) is an English sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculptures and land art situated in natural or urban settings.
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bnf · getty · gnd · loc · wikidata · Q357126 · wikipedia · Andy Goldsworthy
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Andy Goldsworthy • Partner — Tina Fiske • Born — 25 July 1956 • Birthplace — Cheshire, England • Children — 4 • Spouse — Judith Gregson (divorced) • Field — Sculpture, photography • Movement — Environmental art, land art
Early life
Early life
Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire on 25 July 1956, the son of Muriel (née Stanger) and Frederick Allin Goldsworthy (1929–2001), a former professor of applied mathematics at the University of Leeds. He grew up on the Harrogate side of Leeds. From the age of 13, he worked on farms as a labourer. He has likened the repetitive quality of farm tasks to the routine of making sculpture: "A lot of my work is like picking potatoes; you have to get into the rhythm of it." He attended Harrogate Secondary Modern and Harrogate High schools. From 1974–75, he studied fine art at Bradford College of Art, then from 1975–1978 at Preston Polytechnic, now the University of Central Lancashire, where he received his BA.
History
History
• Illustration — Sculpture by Goldsworthy in the National Museum of Scotland After leaving college, Goldsworthy lived in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cumbria. He moved to Scotland in 1985, first living in Langholm and then settling a year later in Penpont, where he still resides. It has been said that his gradual drift northwards was "due to a way of life over which he did not have complete control", but that contributing factors were opportunities and desires to work in these areas and "reasons of economy". In 1993, Goldsworthy received an honorary degree from the University of Bradford. He was an A.D. White Professor-At-Large in Sculpture at Cornell University 2000–2006 and 2006–2008. In 2003, Goldsworthy produced a commissioned work for the entry courtyard of San Francisco's de Young Museum called "Drawn Stone", which echoes San Francisco's frequent earthquakes and their effects. His installation included a giant crack in the pavement that broke off into smaller cracks, and broken limestone, which could be used for benches. The smaller cracks were made with a hammer, adding unpredictability to the work as he created it. In 2025, Goldsworthy held a major show in the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh to mark 50 years of him being an artist. When approached by the National Galleries of Scotland about doing a show, they expected Goldsworthy to focus on one of their outdoor spaces, instead he asked to have the use of the prominent city-centre gallery. The show featured a range of installations and photographs in the upper level of the gallery, plus a selection of earlier works including sketchbooks and videos in the lower levels.
Personal life
Personal life
In 1982, Goldsworthy married Judith Gregson; they had four children together before separating. Judith later died in 2008. He lives in the Scottish village of Penpont with his partner, Tina Fiske, an art historian.
Exhibitions and installations
Exhibitions and installations
• Image — Dates — Title — Location • 1995–2008 — Sapsucker Cairn — Ithaca, New York, USA * • Illustration — x100px — 1996–2003 — Sheepfolds — Cumbria, England, UK * • Illustration — x100px — 1997 — Stone House — Herring Island, Victoria, Australia * • Illustration — x100px — 1997 — Cairn — Herring Island, Victoria, Australia • 1998 — Hutton Roof — National Museum of Scotland Edinburgh, Scotland, UK • 22 May – 15 November 2000 — Andy Goldsworthy at Storm King Art Center (featuring the installation Storm King Wall) — Storm King Art Center Mountainville, Cornwall, New York, USA • — August 2001 — Stone River — Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University Stanford, California, USA • 2002 — Andy Goldsworthy Arch at Goodwood — Cass Sculpture Foundation Goodwood, West Sussex, England, UK * • Illustration — x100px — 2002 — Chalk Stones Trail — South Downs near West Dean, West Sussex • 2002 — Three Cairns — Des Moines Art Center Des Moines, IA USA • 4 May – 31 October 2004 — Andy Goldsworthy on the Roof (featuring the installation Stone Houses) — Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof Garden New York City, USA • 2005 — Andy Goldsworthy: Early Works A national touring exhibition from the Haywood Gallery — England, United Kingdom • 2005 — Drawn Stone — M. H. de Young Memorial Museum San Francisco • 2005 — Arches — Gibbs Farm New Zealand • 22 January – 15 May 2005 — The Andy Goldsworthy Project (including the installation Roof) — National Gallery of Art National Mall, Washington, D.C., USA • 2006 — Red sandstone wall at the Doerr-Hosier Center — Aspen Institute Aspen, Colorado, USA * • Illustration — x100px — 31 March 2007 – 6 January 2008 — Hanging Trees — Yorkshire Sculpture Park West Bretton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, UK • 2007 – 2008 — Clay Houses (Boulder-Room-Holes) — Glenstone Potomac, Maryland, USA • October 2008 — Spire — Park Presidio San Francisco • June 2009 — Refuge d'Art Hiking Trail, Provence, France — Provence France • — 2010-11 — Wood Line — Park Presidio San Francisco • — 7 September 2012 – 2 November 2012 — Domo de Argila / Clay Dome — Cais do Porto Rio de Janeiro, Brazil • 2013 — Tree Fall — Park Presidio San Francisco • 2014 — Earth Wall — Park Presidio San Francisco • 2019 — Walking Wall — Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Missouri • 26 July – 2 November 2025 — Andy Goldsworthy Fifty Years — Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh, Scotland, UK • TBD — Gravestones — Dalveen, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, UK
Further information
Further information
Articles: • Mead, Rebecca. "A Landscape Artist in Winter". The New Yorker profile, February 9, 2026 * * • SPARK Educator Guide. Andy Goldsworthy at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. (Visual Arts: earthworks). (2005). Books: * * * * Film/Documentary • Rivers and Tides (2001) documentary by Thomas Riedelsheimer • Leaning into the Wind (2017) documentary by Thomas Riedelsheimer
Identity
Identity
Andy Goldsworthy is recorded as photographer, sculptor, land artist and environmentalist.

The Wood Line as created by Andy Goldsworthy in San Francisco
Min Zhou
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1956–2002
The full dated record · 3 entries
1956
Andy Goldsworthy born at Cheshire.
1992
Two Autumns - Andy Goldsworthy (1992) (1992) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
2002
Andy Goldsworthy - Rivers And Tides (2002) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
Art process
• Illustration — Bail Hill Striding Arch, one of four arches built by Goldsworthy in this area of Scotland The materials used in Goldsworthy's art often include brightly coloured flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns. He has been quoted as saying, "I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole." Rather than interfering in natural processes, his work magnifies existing ones through deliberately minimal intervention in the landscape. Goldsworthy has said "I am reluctant to carve into or break off solid living rock...I feel a difference between large, deep rooted stones and the debris lying at the foot of a cliff, pebbles on a beach...These are loose and unsettled, as if on a journey, and I can work with them in ways I couldn't with a long resting stone." Goldsworthy's commitment to working with available natural materials injects an inherent scarcity and contingency into the work. In contrast to other artists who work with the land, most of Goldsworthy's works are small in scale and temporary in their installation. For these ephemeral works, Goldsworthy often uses only his bare hands, teeth, and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials. His process reveals a preoccupation with temporality and a specific attention to materials which visibly age and decay, a view which stands in contrast to monumentalism in Land Art. For his permanent sculptures like "Roof", "Stone River" and "Three Cairns", "Moonlit Path" (Petworth, West Sussex, 2002) and "Chalk Stones" in the South Downs, near West Dean, West Sussex he has employed the use of machine tools. To create "Roof", Goldsworthy worked with his assistant and five British dry-stone wallers, who were used to make sure the structure could withstand time and nature. Goldsworthy is generally considered the founder of modern rock balancing.
Publications
* * * * • Republished as * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Photography
Photography
Photography plays a crucial role in his art due to its often ephemeral and transient state. Photographs (made primarily by Goldsworthy himself) of site-specific, environmental works allow them to be shared without severing important ties to place. According to Goldsworthy, "Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit." Photography aids Goldsworthy in understanding his works, as much as in communicating them to an audience. He has said, "Photography is my way of talking, writing and thinking about my art. It makes me aware of connections and developments that might have not otherwise have been apparent. It is the visual evidence which runs through my art as a whole and gives me a broader, more distant view of what I am doing."
Documentary films on Goldsworthy
Documentary films on Goldsworthy
Goldsworthy is the subject of a 2001 documentary feature film called Rivers and Tides, directed by German director Thomas Riedelsheimer. In 2018, Riedelsheimer released a second documentary on Goldsworthy titled Leaning Into the Wind.
Primary material
Documents and archives
institutional register
- Bibliothèque nationale de France authority file 12288494n
Unverified · Bibliothèque nationale de France
- Discogs authority file 2252165
Unverified · Discogs
- FAST authority file 274409
Unverified · FAST
- GND (German National Library) authority file 119157519
Unverified · GND (German National Library)
- IdRef (French universities) authority file 031721451
Unverified · IdRef (French universities)
- ISNI authority file 0000000109219445
Unverified · ISNI
scholarly publication
- Goldsworthy, Andy, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2011
reference work
- “Andy Goldsworthy”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Awards
• 1979 – North West Arts Award • 1980 – Yorkshire Arts Award • 1981 – Northern Arts Award • 1982 – Northern Arts Award • 1986 – Northern Arts Bursary • 1987 – Scottish Arts Council Award • 1989 – Northern Electricity Arts Award • 2000 – Appointed officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) • 2026 – Praemium Imperiale in the category Sculpture
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Goldsworthy, Andy, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011Crossref registry
Verifiedinstitutional register
Bibliothèque nationale de France authority file 12288494nBibliothèque nationale de France
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
GND (German National Library) authority file 119157519GND (German National Library)
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
IdRef (French universities) authority file 031721451IdRef (French universities)
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Library of Congress authority file nr90014605Library of Congress
Partially resolved
Every cited source · 13
- 01
Goldsworthy, Andy, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011
scholarly publication · Scholarly
Consult the source - 02
Bibliothèque nationale de France authority file 12288494n
institutional register · Unverified · Bibliothèque nationale de France
Consult the source - 03
- 04
- 05
GND (German National Library) authority file 119157519
institutional register · Unverified · GND (German National Library)
Consult the source - 06
IdRef (French universities) authority file 031721451
institutional register · Unverified · IdRef (French universities)
Consult the source - 07
- 08
Library of Congress authority file nr90014605
institutional register · Unverified · Library of Congress
Consult the source - 09
- 10
Union List of Artist Names authority file 500033097
institutional register · Unverified · Union List of Artist Names
Consult the source - 11
- 12
“Andy Goldsworthy”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
reference work · Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Consult the source - 13
Wikidata, structured authority record Q357126: Andy Goldsworthy
institutional register · Unverified · Wikimedia Foundation
Consult the source
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
He also worked under the name Goldsworthy, Andrew. The authorities additionally record the headings Andi Gōruzuwājī and Andrew Goldsworthy. His recorded language was English. He was the child of F. Career and activity. Goldsworthy worked in art of sculpture. His work is associated with environmental art. He was employed by Cornell University. He worked at Dumfries and Ithaca. Goldsworthy received Officer of the Order of the British Empire and Cherry Kearton Medal and Award.
Identity and origins
Recognition and collections
Work by Andy Goldsworthy is
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Auckland Art Gallery, Tate and Storm King Art Center
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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