Hand to Earth Andy Goldsworth Scuplture 1976-1990

Reading this survey of works by English environmental artist Goldsworthy is a moving experience. An original who deserves to be as well-known as Christo, Goldsworthy digs mysterious holes into soil and peat or into mounds and orbs made of slate slabs. In Japan, he fashions maple leaves into flaming, sun-like patterns; at the North Pole, he erects huge circles out of bricks of snow. His sand tunnels, leaf-lattices and mazes of horse chestnut stalks are gentle interventions into nature that create new relationships between ourselves and nature. Along with ephemeral sculptures is his creation of such major majestic earthworks as Seven Spires , a brace of clustered pines soaring like a tall pyramid in a forest. Friedman, director of the Leeds City Art Gallery in England, has assembled Goldsworthy's lyrical photographs of his own works plus interviews and essays by 10 contributors, among them an ecologist, an art historian, several curators and novelist John Fowles. (Oct.)