The sculptor Antony Gormley is to give next year's Reith Lectures on BBC Radio 4. The lectures, entitled 'Art as Survival', will explore the centrality of art and creativity in human life.
Antony Gormley, whose works include Angel of the North, Another Place, Field for the British Isles, Quantum Cloud and Event Horizon, will give four Reith Lectures in the spring of 2011, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service.
On giving the lectures, Antony Gormley said: "I am honoured and delighted to be given this invitation to gather my thoughts about the centrality of art in human experience and to be able to contrast contemporary concerns against those of other times and cultures."
Mark Damazer, Controller, BBC Radio 4 said: "I am thrilled that Antony Gormley will be next year's Reith Lecturer. This will be the first set of Reith lectures to be given by a practising artist or sculptor - and it is appropriate that the first will be Antony Gormley - one of Britain's greatest contemporary cultural figures. His work over many years has adorned landscapes in many countries and been admired in many more. His theme - Art as Survival - is suitably challenging and I am sure the Radio 4 audience will respond to the questions he intends to raise about the role of art in different periods - and in different cultures."
Transmission details and further information on Antony Gormley's Reith Lectures will be announced next year.
Ends
7 August 2010
Issued by Radio 4 Publicity, for more information contact [email protected] or call 020 7765 5337
Notes To Editors:
John Reith, the BBC's first Director-General, maintained that broadcasting should be a public service which enriches the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. It is in this spirit that the BBC each year invites a leading figure to deliver a series of lectures on radio. The aim is to advance public understanding and debate about significant issues of contemporary interest.
The Reith Lectures began in 1948. The very first Reith lecturer was the philosopher, Bertrand Russell who spoke on "Authority and the Individual".
