Antony Gormley honoured
Antony Gormley, installation artist and sculptor, received an Honorary Fellowship from LJMU in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the arts.
Antony Gormley received his award during the graduation ceremony for LJMU's School of Art and Design at the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral on Wednesday 26 July 2006.
Professor Frank Sanderson, LJMU's Orator, said: "For more than a quarter of a century, Antony Gormley has breathed new life into the use of the human form in sculpture. His public sculptures, frequently cast from his own body, have repeatedly explored the interaction between artistic images and the natural environment."
During his acceptance speech, Antony said that he was amazed by the energy of Liverpool and was proud to be honoured by a university that linked science and art, "that concentrated on doing things". "LJMU has made an important astronomical instrument that is enabling us to see things we wouldn't otherwise see. Creating such scientific instruments takes imagination," he said, referring to the University's Liverpool Telescope. "Art isn't a luxury. Art is a basic human necessity.It is a tool by which we can explore our lives. It also provides the instruments for imagining the future."
Working on an increasingly ambitious scale, in such works as Another Place, The Angel of the North, Field, Inside Australia, and Quantum Cloud, Antony has been credited with the 'democratisation' of art. His breakthrough came with Field for the British Isles, which has toured America, Europe and Asia. In 1993, Tate Liverpool showed Field for the British Isles made with people aged from 7 to 70 in St Helens, Merseyside.
Since winning the Turner Prize in 1994, Antony Gormley's work has been exhibited extensively, both in the UK and internationally. He is perhaps best known as the creator of the monumental Angel of the North in Gateshead.
Closer to home, the Another Place installation on Crosby beach has been hailed as one of the best examples of regeneration anywhere in the North West. Professor Frank Sanderson continued: "Antony Gormley enjoys huge popularity with the general public. Through his talent, drive, enthusiasm and constant curiosity, he continues to make a massive contribution to contemporary public art. We on Merseyside have first-hand experience of his success on a grand scale and we eagerly anticipate future expressions of his boundless creativity."
To read the complete LJMU oration for Antony Gormley, click here.
Picture: Honorary Fellow Antony Gormley and Emeritus Chancellor Cherie Booth QC.
