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Lot Essay
Lying prone and outstretched Stretch evokes a feeling of arrested internal movement and acute tension.
An important work from Antony Gormley’s acclaimed exhibition, Human, which was presented at the Forte Di Belvedere in Florence in 2015, Stretch is an exceptional example of the artist’s Cube Works series (2012 - 2018). Intrigued by the ways in which iron pyrite naturally aggregates, the artist began to experiment by using offset cubes to create body masses. The aim was to translate the volumes of the body into strict cubic frames or solids, using a sculptural language borrowed from geology to replace anatomy.
Having its basis in the rational logic of geometry, in the 20th century the cube became the basis of modernist construction and the minimalist unit. In contrast to these conventions Gormley uses it here to evoke strong emotion and bring the viewer back to the body. This work is powerful proof of the artist's claim that as his ‘work becomes more abstract it engages our empathy more completely'.
Implying a dialogue between human nature and planetary matter this lifesize work is cast in iron, an earth material found at the core of the planet and which when exposed at its surface reacts to time and the elements, fusing both into the meaning and material of the sculpture.
An important work from Antony Gormley’s acclaimed exhibition, Human, which was presented at the Forte Di Belvedere in Florence in 2015, Stretch is an exceptional example of the artist’s Cube Works series (2012 - 2018). Intrigued by the ways in which iron pyrite naturally aggregates, the artist began to experiment by using offset cubes to create body masses. The aim was to translate the volumes of the body into strict cubic frames or solids, using a sculptural language borrowed from geology to replace anatomy.
Having its basis in the rational logic of geometry, in the 20th century the cube became the basis of modernist construction and the minimalist unit. In contrast to these conventions Gormley uses it here to evoke strong emotion and bring the viewer back to the body. This work is powerful proof of the artist's claim that as his ‘work becomes more abstract it engages our empathy more completely'.
Implying a dialogue between human nature and planetary matter this lifesize work is cast in iron, an earth material found at the core of the planet and which when exposed at its surface reacts to time and the elements, fusing both into the meaning and material of the sculpture.