Antony Gormley, Insider XX, 1998: A Figure Distilled
A unique work on paper from the period of Gormley's celebrated Insider sculptures, in which the artist reduced his own body to its core.
Lougher Contemporary is delighted to present Antony Gormley's Insider XX, 1998, a unique work in aniline dye, shellac and polyurethane varnish on paper. It was made in the late 1990s, during one of the most concentrated periods of Gormley's career. A single attenuated figure stands at the centre of the sheet, and the drawing distils the ideas behind the Insider sculptures into one direct, physical image.
This is not an edition. Insider XX is a one-off work by the artist's hand, signed, titled and dated on the reverse.
The Insiders: The Body, Reduced to Its Core
For more than four decades, Gormley has used his own body as the starting point for sculpture. In the late 1990s he took that practice in a new direction. Working from moulds of his body, he reduced each figure to roughly a third of its original mass while keeping its height and stance. The results were slender, rough-cast iron figures that he called the Insiders.
What survives the reduction is not a skeleton. It is something more elusive: the body's core, its posture, and the memory of an inner state. Eight Insiders were first shown together at Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, in 1999. In 2001, the New Art Centre at Roche Court in Wiltshire showed five Insider figures alongside a series of related drawings.
Drawing With Substance
Gormley has never treated drawing as a sketch for sculpture. It is a practice in its own right, and a testing ground for the ideas that later take physical form.
His choice of materials is central. Over the years he has drawn with earth, rabbit-skin glue, casein, shellac and even blood, and in the late 1990s he turned to aniline dyes. As he has put it, "It is important to me that the substances I use to draw with are not taken for granted." Each material carries its own qualities and behaves in its own way on heavy, absorbent paper.
The Work: A Figure Within Its Own Aura
In Insider XX, a pool of amber shellac spreads across the lower half of the sheet in a soft, irregular form. It reads at once as a field of light, a body's outer edge and an aura. Within it stands the figure, drawn in dark aniline dye.
The limbs taper and swell where the dye gathered and dried, so the figure is not outlined but grown. The arms open slightly at the sides, the legs are drawn in single wet strokes, and the head rises to a narrow point. The figure seems to hover between appearing and dissolving: exactly the tension the Insider sculptures explore in iron.
The sheet's deckled edges are left visible. The work is float-mounted and framed to conservation standards in a dark wooden frame.
A Collector's Perspective
Most collectors meet Gormley through his prints and editions. Unique works on paper, especially those tied so closely to a defining body of sculpture, are far harder to find.
Insider XX offers a direct record of the artist's thinking at a key moment, made by his own hand. For collectors who already hold Gormley editions, or who have been waiting for the right original, it is a rare opportunity.
Artwork details
Antony Gormley (British, b. 1950)
Insider XX, 1998
Aniline dye, shellac and polyurethane varnish on paper
76 × 56 cm
Unique
Signed, titled and dated on the reverse
Float-mounted and framed to conservation standards
Condition on request
Price on request
Interested in the Gormley? We would be pleased to provide pricing, further imagery and condition details on request.