Skip navigation
London Review of Books London Review Bookshop

On the Skyline subscriber-only content

Peter Campbell

It is like the first paragraph of a bit of old-fashioned science fiction: ‘Overnight, figures, the size and shape of men, mysteriously appeared on high points of city buildings. All could be seen from the grey windowless bunker that crouched by the river. Some were near, others far off. All looked towards it.’ That is indeed what has happened. One of Antony Gormley’s armies has settled on us. If it really was science fiction they would have marched with rusty squeals from Cuxhaven, or from Crosby Beach by the Mersey where their brothers stand, washed by the tides, staring out to sea. As it is, they dot that part of the London horizon you can scan from the Hayward Gallery sculpture terraces.

subscriber-only content Subscribers to the print edition can log in to view the entire article. For information about subscribing to the London Review of Books click here. This article is available for purchase online. Buy this article.

Peter Campbell is the London Review’s resident designer and art critic.

LRB cover artwork

From the archive

At the Royal Scottish Academy
Eleanor Birne: Ron Mueck

Pulping Herbert Read in a Washing-Machine
Nicholas Jose on Chinese art

At the National Gallery
Peter Campbell: Ingres-flesh

Yellow Sky, Red Sea, Violet Sands
Richard Wollheim: Nicolas De Staël

Looking at the Ceiling
T.J. Clark: A Savonarolan Bonfire