History After leaving college, Goldsworthy lived in
Yorkshire,
Lancashire, and
Cumbria. 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.
Art process 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 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.
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." In 2018, Riedelsheimer released a second documentary on Goldsworthy titled
Leaning Into the Wind. ==Personal life==