Antony Gormley

Antony Gormley, born 1950, is a British sculptor who has become one of the most critically praised and also one of the most popular artists Britain. He was born into a Catholic family, the youngest of seven children, and grew up in a middle class suburb of London. (Another Place, 1997)

He read anthropology and art history at Trinity College Cambridge, then spent three years in India and Sri Lanka studying Buddhism. For a while he seriously considered becoming a monk, but eventually he changed his mind and came home to Britain. (Still Falling, 1993)

He studied sculpture in a graduate program at the university of London in 1977 to 1979 and immediately began working as a sculptor, holding his first solo show in 1981. (Domain Field, 2003)

Asian Field, 2003.

He says,

The art of our time is absolutely and fundamentally different to everything that went before. It's not about the known, it's about the unknown. It's not about reinforcing those things that give comfort and certainty. It's about identifying the things that make us uncomfortable, uncertain.

(Quantum Cloud, 2000)

One of his most famous works, Angel of the North, 1998.

Building 1 to 5, 2013.

I love these variations on the human form.

Insider 5 to 9, 1997.

And some drawings.

So here's an artist who has taken a serious approach to his work, stayed true to his own vision, made a lot of interesting pieces, and still been quite popular and famous, with many thousands of fans. That, it seems to me, is a successful career.