BRIT ARTIST, Antony Mark David Gormley’s revitalization of the human figure in sculptures hit the heights. It follows on from a previous exhibition “Another Place” Crosby Beach, Liverpool 2006. I first had the pleasure of meeting the artist when he gave an open discussion of his work at IMMA, The Irish Musuem Modern Art back in the early 90′s. Gormley was born to a German mother and Irish father and grew up in West Yorkshire UK.  His exhibition at IMMA was a complete success capturing the public’s imagination, goodwill and support. Totally impressed, I went back many times to view the exhibition and like many I was certain Gormley would become a very big voice in the contemporary art world, but little did I know just how big! Many of the Brit Art Group  were supported by Charles Saatchi co founder of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. However, Antony Gormley was not one of them!

Angel of The North 1998

In one of his few public speeches (at the Turner Prize award ceremony held at the Tate in 1994 when he announced that Antony Gormley— a sculptor whose work Charles Saatchi did not collect— had won the £20,000 prize), he remarked:

I’m not sure what today’s young British artists are putting in their porridge in the mornings but it seems to be working. They’re providing the most striking new art being made anywhere in the universe, and it seems every museum, from Nebraska to Alaska, is ringing up trying to organise shows of their work. Now I don’t know, any more than you, what has made our young artists suddenly so supercharged, but I am certain that teachers like Michael Craig-Martin at Goldsmiths’ College have had a tremendous effect. [Applause.] Now Goldsmiths’, and in recent years the Royal College, and some other art schools, they have set a tone and a level of ambition that has stimulated not just their graduates, but young artists all over Britain who are producing work that is challenging, articulate and relevant. Now if sometimes that work appears tasteless and cynical and uncouth, I think it’s because sometimes we all are. [No applause greeted this admission.] I think that the Turner Prize has itself become an inspiration and a catalyst. It’s a cliché, but it is nevertheless true, that we all welcome the wider interest and debate in contemporary art that the Turner Prize generates. At the very least it gives four young artists every year the chance to exhibit their work here at the Tate.

The Above Excerpt is taken from “Supercollector” A Critic of Charles Saatchi by British Art Critic John A Walker.

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