Anthony Caro | |
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| Born | Anthony Alfred Caro (1924-03-08)8 March 1924 New Malden, Surrey, England |
| Died | 23 October 2013(2013-10-23) (aged 89) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Regent Street Polytechnic |
| Alma mater | Christ's College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Sculpture, drawing |
| Notable work | Twenty Four Hours (1960) Early One Morning (1962) |
| Movement | Constructed steel sculpture,abstract art,modernism |
| Spouse(s) | ; 2 children |
| Awards |
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| Website | www |
Sir Anthony Alfred CaroOM CBE (8 March 1924 – 23 October 2013) was an Englishabstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using 'found' and industrial objects.[1] He began as a member of themodernist school, having worked withHenry Moore early in his career.[1] He was lauded as the greatest British sculptor of his generation.[1]
Anthony Caro was born inNew Malden, Surrey, England[2] to a Jewish family[3] and was the youngest of three children.[2]
When Caro was three, his father, a stockbroker,[2] moved the family to a farm inChurt, Surrey.[4] Caro was educated atCharterhouse School, where his housemaster introduced him to British sculptorCharles Wheeler.[2] During holidays, he studied at the Farnham School of Art (now theUniversity for the Creative Arts[5]) and worked in Wheeler's studio[6]
When he left school he spent a brief period in an architect's office in Guildford drawing plans, which he did not take to, so his father suggested he study engineering.[7] He later earned a degree in engineering atChrist's College, Cambridge.[2]
In 1946, after time in theRoyal Navy, he studied sculpture at theRegent Street Polytechnic before pursuing further studies at theRoyal Academy Schools from 1947 until 1952.[2]
Anthony Caro encounteredmodernism at art school, and when working as a studio assistant toHenry Moore from 1951-53.[8] In 1955 he exhibited two sculptures in the group exhibition New Painters and Painter-Sculptors at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London and in 1956 he had his first solo show at Galleria del Naviglio in Milan.[9]
In 1959 Caro was awarded a Ford Foundation scholarship to undertake a research trip to The United States of America, which radically changed his approach to sculpture.[10] During this trip he met the criticClement Greenberg, as well as theColour Field paintersKenneth Noland,Helen Frankenthaler andRobert Motherwell, for the first time.[11] After being introduced to the American sculptorDavid Smith, he abandoned his earlier figurative work and started constructing sculptures by welding or bolting together pieces of steel such as I-beams, steel plates and meshes.Twenty Four Hours (1960), inTate Britain since 1975, is one of his earliest abstract sculptures in painted steel. Often the finished piece was then painted in a bold flat colour.[8]
Caro found international success in the late 1950s. He is often credited with the significant innovation of removing the sculpture from its plinth, although Smith andBrâncuși had both previously taken steps in the same direction. Caro's sculptures are usually self-supporting and sit directly on the floor. In doing so, they remove a barrier between the work and the viewer, who is invited to approach and interact with the sculpture from all sides.[8]
In 1963 Caro moved toBennington, Vermont, where he made a prolific body of abstract, brightly coloured sculptures, includingSlow Movement (1965), which is now part of theArts Council Collection. In 1964 he opened his first exhibition in New York at theAndre Emmerich Gallery, showcasing these bold new works.[12]
From 1970 onwards, Caro began to make sculptures in rusted, then varnished or waxed, steel.[5] In 1972 he made a significant series of sculptures at Ripamonte Factory inVeduggio, which included fourteen new works in soft edge roll end steel.[5] This way of working continued, and from 1974-1976 Caro worked at York Steel Company Factory inToronto, where he produced 37 large-scale sculptures later known as theFlats series.[5]
In 1978, Caro was commissioned to design a sculpture for architectI M Pei’s new East Wing building of theNational Gallery, Washington, DC. This sculpture,National Gallery Ledge Piece (1978), was architectural in scale and installed in situ.[5]
In 1980, Caro was trying to organise an exhibition of British abstract art in South African townships when he metRobert Loder. In 1981, when staying in New York State, the pair, alongside curator Terry Fenton and painter and wife of CaroSheila Girling, developed the idea of running workshops for professional artists, which became theTriangle Arts Trust.[13] They held the first Triangle workshop in 1982 for thirty sculptors and painters from the US, the UK and Canada atPine Plains, New York.[14]
Caro's work changed direction in the 1980s with the introduction of more literal elements, with a series of figures drawn fromclassical Greece. After visiting Greece in 1985, and closely studying classical friezes, he embarked on a series of large-scale narrative works, includingAfter Olympia, a panorama more than 23 metres (75 ft) long, inspired by the temple to Zeus at Olympia.[4] Latterly he has attempted large scaleinstallation pieces, one of which,Sea Music, stands on the quay atPoole, Dorset.
To mark the millennium, Caro worked with British architectsFoster + Partners and engineers Arup to design theMillennium Bridge. The bridge opened in June 2000 and 100,000 people crossed it in the first weekend, causing more lateral movement than expected. As a result, extensive research was undertaken into the cause - synchronised pedestrian footfall - resulting in changes to codes for bridge building worldwide.[15]
In the early 2000s, his work featured nearly life-size equestrian figures built from fragments of wood and terra cotta on gymnasts' vaulting horses.[16] In 2008, Caro opened his "Chapel of Light" installation in the Saint Jean-Baptiste Church ofBourbourg (France), and exhibited four figurative head sculptures at theNational Portrait Gallery, London. In 2011 theMetropolitan Museum of Art installed five works by Caro on their rooftop. As of 2012, Caro was working on an immense, multipart sculpture that would occupy three blocks of Midtown Park Avenue.
Caro was also a tutor atSaint Martin's School of Art in London, inspiring a younger generation of British abstract sculptors, led by former students and assistants includingPhillip King,Tim Scott,William G. Tucker,Peter Hide, andRichard Deacon; as well as a reaction group includingBruce McLean,Barry Flanagan,Richard Long,David Hall andGilbert & George. He and several former students were asked to join the seminal 1966 show at theJewish Museum in New York entitled,Primary Structures representing the British influence on the "New Art".[5] Caro taught atBennington College from 1963 to 1965, along with painterJules Olitski and sculptorDavid Smith.
Caro also collaborated with celebrated architects, notablyFrank Gehry, with whom he constructed a wooden village in New York in 1987. WithNorman Foster and the engineerChris Wise, he designed theLondon Millennium Footbridge spanning the Thames betweenSt. Paul's Cathedral and theTate Modern.[4]
Since the 1950s, Caro's work has been shown in museums and galleries worldwide.[17]
His first solo exhibition was at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan in 1956,[17] and his first solo show in London was at the Gimpel Fils Gallery the next year.[17][18] Another solo show was a pivotal exhibition at theWhitechapel Art Gallery in 1963.[17] In 1967 Caro began exhibiting regularly withKasmin in London, and in 1969, he began showing withAndré Emmerich in New York.[19] In the same year he showed at theSão Paulo Biennale withJohn Hoyland.[20] In 2004, to honour his 80th birthday,Tate Britain andKenwood House held exhibitions of his work.[21]
Caro's museum exhibitions include "Anthony Caro: A Retrospective" at theMuseum of Modern Art, New York (1975, travelled toWalker Art Center, Minneapolis,Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, andMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston); "Anthony Caro", Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1995); "Anthony Caro",Tate Britain, London (2005); three museums inPas-de-Calais, France (2008), to accompany the opening of his Chapel of Light at Bourbourg; and "Anthony Caro on the Roof",Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2011).[22] In 2012 theYale Center for British Art presented "Caro: Close Up".[23]
From 1 June to 27 October 2013 in connection with the 55thVenice Biennale, he exhibited at theMuseo Correr, Venice, Italy.[24] The exhibit was on at the time of his death.
Caro was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the1969 New Year Honours.[25] He wasknighted in the1987 Birthday Honours and received theOrder of Merit in May 2000.[26][8] He was awarded many prizes, including thePraemium Imperiale for Sculpture in Tokyo in 1992 and theLifetime Achievement Award for Sculpture in 1997.[27]
In 1949, Caro married the painterSheila Girling and they had two sons together:Timothy (born 1951), a zoologist; and Paul (born 1958), a painter.[2][28]
Caro was 89 when he died of a heart attack on 23 October 2013.[29] He was lauded as a "gentle man with a pioneering spirit" by BBC arts editorWill Gompertz and "one of the greatest sculptors in the second half of the twentieth century" byRoyal Academy of Arts chief executiveCharles Saumarez Smith.[1] He is buried in the churchyard ofWorth Matravers, Dorset.
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