The Reluctant Formalist: Andy Goldsworthy

After watching the documentary Rivers and Tides, I really fell in love with the work of Andy Goldsworthy. His work is beautiful in its simplicity and love of nature. He becomes one with his landscape and gives each work to nature as a gift. He works only with his hands no matter the temperatures he encounters. His works range in materials such as flowers, twigs, stone, leaves, ice and many other mediums. This is interesting to note because his work is always in a new site with materials used from only the area he is working with that day. He also learns a lot about a place from observing it and reacting to it through art. Below I have answered some questions in regards to the film and his work as a whole.
Why does Goldsworthy resist the label of Greenbergian Formalism? On what basis, if any, might Clement Greenberg resist Goldsworthy’s work?
I think that Goldsworthy resists the label of Formalist because he sees himself as one with nature, not someone who works with strict artistic rules. I believe he is not a formalist, rather a land artist with formalist ideas. Meaning that he works within nature, but does have rules that he holds himself to while working. When making a work, he must only use materials found in that landscape and once finished the land will destroy it in such a way that it adds to the piece. I think that Clement Greenberg would absolutely resist Goldsworthy’s work because while his work has rules it is not work that can be seen regularly by the public to view. Greenberg believes that work should be viewed by the public to learn from, not be an intimate conversation between artist and nature, where photographs are the only evidence it exists.
Assuming Greenberg is not the most sympathetic to Goldsworthy, which among other Formalist traditions would be a better match, if any: a Kantian-Hegelian pre-Modern viewpoint, a Bellian early-Modern “significant form” criterion, or a Structuralist post-Greenbergian analysis? Defend your choice through comparison.
I think that Goldsworthy would fit much better into the category of Structuralist post-Greenberg. This is due to the fact that Goldsworthy uses the structures of nature to create his works while celebrating nature as a whole. He uses his land art to point to greater issues that can lead to conversations about nature. Joel Shapiro is a structuralist like Goldsworthy except for the fact that he works with manmade materials. They both use raw materials and push it to its absolute limits. Even Agnes Martin is like Goldsworthy in a way with her differences to other painters in her field. Goldsworthy is really like no other and can be hard to pin point others like him in the artworld.