Brick Man
{{Short description|Sculpture proposed by Antony Gormley in the 1980s}}
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{{For|the TV episode|Brick Man (Year of the Rabbit){{!}}"Brick Man" (Year of the Rabbit)}}
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File:Antony Gormley 'Brick Man' maquette - 2025-01-23 - Andy Mabbett - 01.jpg ]]
Brick Man was an Antony Gormley sculpture proposed in the 1980s for the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
History and description
A male human figure made of clay building bricks, standing around {{convert|120|ft|m}} high, it would have stood on a triangle of land bounded by railway lines in the Holbeck area of the city, greeting travellers arriving at Leeds railway station. It would have cost £600,000 and been the largest sculpture in the UK at the time. Visitors would have been able to enter via a doorway in the heels, climb stairs, and look out through the ears.{{cite web |title=A missed opportunity? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/articles/2009/05/01/history_brickman_feature.shtml |website=BBC News |date=1 May 2009 |accessdate=30 September 2019 }}
The sculpture was one of twenty designs produced in response to a competition to find an artwork for the site, but the proposal was ultimately rejected by Leeds City Council in 1988. Conservative councillor Richard Hughes-Rowlands said at the time: "If Mr Gormley is talking about it [Brick Man] going somewhere else, my eyes won't exactly be weeping tears."{{cite news |title= Where to now for cultural soul of Leeds?|url= http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/art/Where-to-now-for-cultural.3880130.jp| work =
Yorkshire Post|publisher=Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd|date= 2008-03-14|accessdate=2008-07-11 }}
Gormley has blamed "lack of nerve" for the rejection of his idea, adding: "I think of it still as my best attempt to allude to the collective body."{{cite news |title= Modern art: Ask Antony Gormley|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/forum/744532.stm|publisher=BBC |date= 2000-05-14|accessdate=2008-07-11 }} The idea of an iconic landmark sculpture of the human form later saw the light of day in Gormley's Angel of the North, which is {{convert|66|ft|m}} tall.
A plaster maquette – cast from Gormley's own body – for the sculpture can be seen in Leeds City Art Gallery.
Antony Gormley 'Brick Man' maquette - 2025-01-23 - Andy Mabbett - 04.jpg|texture of maquette
Antony Gormley 'Brick Man' maquette - 2025-01-23 - Andy Mabbett - 06.jpg|hole in ear allowing viewing
Antony Gormley 'Brick Man' maquette - 2025-01-23 - Andy Mabbett - 07.jpg|entrance doorway in heels
References
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Category:Sculptures by Antony Gormley