Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years
National Galleries of Scotland launches its summer blockbuster exhibition
Edinburgh
National Galleries of Scotland typically launches its summer exhibition just in time for the festival crowds about to descend on the city. This year Andy Goldsworthy is taking the spotlight. Here are some highlights from the exhibition.
You wouldn’t immediately expect to see Andy Goldsworthy’s latest works within the hallowed chambers of the Royal Scottish Academy building. It was completed in 1826 and looks much like it did 200 years ago. However, his latest artworks have come by invitation to celebrate 50 years as an artist. Taking inspiration from the building, Andy seems to have relished the challenge of taking his art indoors. When talking about setting up the exhibition, he pointed out that nature exists everywhere, not just in rural spaces, it doesn’t stop at the city boundary.
Andy Goldsworthy has lived in Dumfriesshire, Scotland since 1985. In that time, he has transformed from land art pioneer to an icon of outdoor artworks. After 50 years, he continues to push the boundaries of our relationship with the natural world, its materials and how we use them to enhance our lives and our environment.
Wool runner
The first work, Wool Runner, gets you thinking before you even enter the gallery space. I was tempted to step barefoot onto the sheep fleece runner that hugs the space where the old runner used to sit. The fleece is patterned with colour markings the farmers use to code the sheep. In this new context the inherent beauty of nature hits you.
Sheep Paintings and Fence
Sheep poop and mud feature in these artworks and look perfect in the lobby space. The canvases are mounted on boards wedged into the alcoves. There’s a surprising serenity that you wouldn’t expect from a canvas placed into a field of sheep. A feeding block placed on top and then removed creates the negative space. A barbed wire fence on steroids straddles the columns.
The gallery conservation team worked constantly with the artist to ensure no damage or danger to the RSA building. Andy says he felt inspired by these constraints and adaptations.
Gravestones
For some years Andy has been curious to do something with the stones salvaged from grave-digging. He wants to acknowledge them as symbolic, showing the exchange between body and earth, instead of discarded. Using the skylight as the only light source creates a poignant energy here.
Skylight
Again using only natural light, reed mace (bullrushes) from Scottish lochs was used to create this curtained chamber that you can step into and feel the light change. You get the sense of nature’s relationship with light and how much we rely on the forms and functions of the natural world.
Red Wall
Red earth is used by local farmers to mark the sheep. The redness is due to the high iron content of the earth. The artist is reminding us that we are bound to the earth by blood. This artwork can only be made over the space of two days to get the right texture of crack.
The paintings opposite are canvases that covered the tables on which the red clay was moulded into balls to make the artwork. Artists are known to make a mess in order to make their marks so it’s interesting to incorporate the mess into the exhibitions to create complementary artworks.
Oak Passage
This one is an instant crowdpleaser. Twisted oak branches, fallen from storm-damaged trees, are trimmed to perfection to create a surreal catwalk. Andy wanted it to be a reminder that the oak flooring of the gallery was also once a tree and that a building is part of nature too.
The retrospective works fill the rest of the space over two floors. Downstairs you’ll find Andy’s older and early-career works, ephemeral explorations and installations made permanent through capturing on video and photography. They give context to the work upstairs. So, I went back for a second tour around the new works.
This exhibition inspires creativity and thinking around our relationship to the natural world and its elements. The gallery space intensifies their aesthetics. The senses awaken: touch, sight, smell, hearing, and somehow even taste. I’ll be returning to this space for sure.
Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years
26 July - 2 November 2025
National Galleries of Scotland at the RSA building (Princes Street entrance at The Mound)