Sir Anthony Caro (b. 1924)
British-born Anthony Caro has been a key practitioner of contemporary sculpture in the U.K.; The Independent called him “Britain’s greatest living sculptor.” After serving in the Royal Navy, he studied at the Royal Academy Schools. This formal academic training was complemented by the two years he spent as assistant to Henry Moore. Caro’s work from the 1950s explored the figure in a manner inspired by Expressionism, in clay, plaster, and bronze, and he exhibited these pieces in group and solo shows during the decade.
In 1959, Caro visited the United States and met Clement Greenberg, Kenneth Noland, David Smith, Robert Motherwell, and Richard Diebenkorn, among other figures in the avant-garde art world. After his return to the U.K., Caro began creating configurations of welded steel that were painted a single color. These compositions grew lighter and sparer, often employing a horizontal axis. Caro’s sculpture revolutionized the avant-garde approach to the medium because he removed figurative references in favor of complete abstraction. And by placing his pieces directly on the ground instead of using pedestals—a move that simultaneously related his sculpture to a human scale and removed them conceptually from the rarefied category of high art.
In 1963, the Whitechapel Art Gallery organized a solo show of Caro’s work that brought the artist important critical attention. At the same time, he began exhibiting regularly with Kasmin Limited in London for nearly 30 years. And in 1969, he began showing with André Emmerich in New York. He showed at numerous museums during the 1960s and 1970s, including the Tate Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art.
In the late 1960s, Caro worked on his so-called Table Pieces, which incorporate tools, handles, and other objects with manual references; this use of found objects has been a hallmark of his career. Caro continued exploring iconography related to labor when he purchased agricultural equipment in 1969 and used the objects, including propeller blades and plough shares, in his pieces. These projects explored a variety of metal mediums and scales, resulting in very simplified arrangements or smaller, more complex pieces. In 1993, he used clay, metal, and wood for sculptures that returned to figuration in his Trojan War series. At the same time, he continued to create enormous steel pieces.
Important to his development as a sculptor was his work as a teacher at St. Martin’s School of Art in London from 1953 to 1981. Exchanges with his students, who included Hamish Fulton, Gilbert & George, and Richard Long, informed his own work in sculpture.
Caro has exhibited widely, and he was the subject of an extensive retrospective at the Tate Britain in 2005. His work is held in major collections around the world.
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