Anthony Caro

Sir Anthony Alfred Caro Template:Postnominals (8 March 1924 – 23 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using 'found' and industrial objects.<ref name=BBC_death /> He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with Henry Moore early in his career.<ref name=BBC_death /><ref name="Ina Cole">Template:Cite book</ref> He was lauded as the greatest British sculptor of his generation.<ref name=BBC_death />

Early life and education

Anthony Caro was born in New Malden, Surrey, England<ref name=Guard_obit>Template:Cite news</ref> to a Jewish family<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and was the youngest of three children.<ref name=Guard_obit />

When Caro was three, his father, a stockbroker,<ref name=Guard_obit /> moved the family to a farm in Churt, Surrey.<ref name="nytimes.com">Template:Cite news</ref> Caro was educated at Charterhouse School, where his housemaster introduced him to British sculptor Charles Wheeler.<ref name=Guard_obit /> During holidays, he studied at the Farnham School of Art (now the University for the Creative Arts<ref name="anthonycaroBio">Template:Cite web</ref>) and worked in Wheeler's studio<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He later earned a degree in engineering at Christ's College, Cambridge.<ref name="Guard_obit" />

In 1946, after time in the Royal Navy, he studied sculpture at the Regent Street Polytechnic before pursuing further studies at the Royal Academy Schools from 1947 until 1952.<ref name="Guard_obit" />

Work

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Black Cover Flat (1974), steel, Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Anthony Caro encountered modernism at art school, and when working as a studio assistant to Henry Moore from 1951-53.<ref name="LAT">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During this trip he met the critic Clement Greenberg, as well as the colour field painters Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell, for the first time.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After being introduced to the American sculptor David 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), in Tate 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.<ref name="LAT" />

Caro found international success in the late 1950s. He is often credited with the significant innovation of removing the sculpture from its plinth, building upon the steps David Smith and Constantin Brâncuși had taken. 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.<ref name="LAT"/>

In 1963 Caro moved to Bennington, Vermont, where he made a prolific body of abstract, brightly coloured sculptures, including Slow Movement (1965), which is now part of the Arts Council Collection. In 1964 he opened his first exhibition in New York at the Andre Emmerich Gallery, showcasing these bold new works.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

From 1970 onwards, Caro began to make sculptures in rusted, then varnished or waxed, steel.<ref name="anthonycaroBio" /> In 1972 he made a significant series of sculptures at Ripamonte Factory in Veduggio, which included fourteen new works in soft edge roll end steel.<ref name="anthonycaroBio" /> This way of working continued, and from 1974-1976 Caro worked at York Steel Company Factory in Toronto, where he produced 37 large-scale sculptures later known as the Flats series.<ref name="anthonycaroBio" />

In 1978, Caro was commissioned to design a sculpture for architect I M Pei's new East Wing building of the National Gallery, Washington, DC. This sculpture, National Gallery Ledge Piece (1978), was architectural in scale and installed in situ.<ref name="anthonycaroBio" />

In 1980, Caro was working towards an exhibition of British abstract art in South African townships when he met Robert Loder. In 1981, when staying in New York State, the pair, alongside curator Terry Fenton and painter and wife of Caro Sheila Girling, developed the idea of running workshops for professional artists, which became the Triangle Arts Trust.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They held the first Triangle workshop in 1982 for thirty sculptors and painters from the US, the UK and Canada at Pine Plains, New York.<ref name="Indie">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Caro's work changed direction in the 1980s with the introduction of more literal elements, with a series of figures drawn from classical Greece. After visiting Greece in 1985, and closely studying classical friezes, he embarked on a series of large-scale narrative works, including After Olympia, a panorama more than Template:Convert long, inspired by the temple to Zeus at Olympia.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> Another large scale installation piece, Sea Music, stands on the quay at Poole, Dorset.

In the early 2000s, his work featured nearly life-size equestrian figures built from fragments of wood and terra cotta on gymnasts' vaulting horses.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2008, Caro opened his "Chapel of Light" installation in the Saint Jean-Baptiste Church of Bourbourg (France),<ref name="Ina Cole"/> a permanent sculptural installation made between 2001-2008 that is integrated into the architecture of the church.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 2008 he also exhibited four figurative head sculptures at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In 2011 the Metropolitan 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.

Teaching

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Dream City (1996), rusted steel, at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Caro was also a tutor at Saint Martin's School of Art in London from 1953-1981, inspiring a younger generation of British abstract sculptors, led by former students and assistants including Phillip King, Tim Scott, William G. Tucker, Peter Hide, and Richard Deacon; as well as a reaction group including Bruce McLean, Barry Flanagan, Richard Long, David Hall and Gilbert & George. He and several former students were asked to join the seminal 1966 show at the Jewish Museum in New York titled, Primary Structures representing the British influence on the "New Art".<ref name="anthonycaroBio"/> Caro taught at Bennington College from 1963 to 1965, along with painter Jules Olitski and sculptor David Smith.

Architecture and design

Caro also collaborated with celebrated architects, notably Frank Gehry, with whom he constructed a wooden village in New York in 1987, Norman Foster and I M Pei.

To mark the millennium, Caro worked with British architects Foster + Partners and engineers Arup to design the Millennium Bridge.This involved working with Norman Foster and the engineer Chris Wise, to design the London Millennium Footbridge spanning the Thames between St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tate Modern.<ref name="nytimes.com" /> The bridge opened in June 2000 and 100,000 people crossed it in the first weekend, and it has since become an iconic part of London's skyline and resulted in changes to codes for bridge building worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Exhibitions

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National Gallery Ledge Piece, 1978, welded steel, by Anthony Caro

Since the 1950s, Caro's work has been shown in museums and galleries worldwide.<ref name=Resume/>

His first solo exhibition was at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan in 1956,<ref name=Resume>Template:Cite web</ref> and his first solo show in London was at the Gimpel Fils Gallery the next year.<ref name=Resume/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another solo show was a pivotal exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1963.<ref name=Resume/> In 1967 Caro began exhibiting regularly with Kasmin in London, and in 1969, he began showing with André Emmerich in New York.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the same year he showed at the São Paulo Biennale with John Hoyland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2004, to honour his 80th birthday, Tate Britain and Kenwood House held exhibitions of his work.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Therein at his 1967 premier showing at the Kasmin gallery, included in the works exhibited was thid seminal multi-piece painted steel sculpture Prairie which employs visual illusionisn. Of this sculpture the American art historian Michael Fried reviei g the exhibition in ArtForum said that ..."I believe that Prairie is a masterpiece, one of the great works of modern art, a touchstone for future sculpture"...<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Caro's museum exhibitions include "Anthony Caro: A Retrospective" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1975, travelled to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston); "Anthony Caro", Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1995); "Anthony Caro", Tate Britain, London (2005); <ref name="Ina Cole"/> three museums in Pas-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).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2012 the Yale Center for British Art presented "Caro: Close Up".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

From 1 June to 27 October 2013 in connection with the 55th Venice Biennale, he exhibited at the Museo Correr, Venice, Italy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The exhibit was on at the time of his death.

Recognition

Caro was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1969 New Year Honours.<ref>United Kingdom list: Template:London Gazette</ref> He was knighted in the 1987 Birthday Honours and received the Order of Merit in May 2000.<ref>United Kingdom list: Template:London Gazette</ref><ref name="LAT"/> He was awarded many prizes, including the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture in Tokyo in 1992 and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Sculpture in 1997.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

In 1949, Caro married the painter Sheila Girling and they had two sons together: Timothy (born 1951), a zoologist; and Paul (born 1958), a painter.<ref name=Guard_obit /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Death

Caro was 89 when he died of a heart attack on 23 October 2013.<ref name=Ind_death>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> He was lauded as a "gentle man with a pioneering spirit" by BBC arts editor Will Gompertz and "one of the greatest sculptors in the second half of the twentieth century" by Royal Academy of Arts chief executive Charles Saumarez Smith.<ref name=BBC_death>Template:Cite news</ref> He is buried in the churchyard of Worth Matravers, Dorset.

Further reading

• Cole, Ina, From the Sculptor’s Studio (London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd, 2021, conversation with Anthony Caro, held in 2006, page 34-47) Template:ISBN Template:OCLC.
• Barker, Ian, Anthony Caro: Quest for the New Sculpture (Aldershot: Lund Humphries, 2004) Template:ISBN.
• Reid, Mary, Anthony Caro: Drawing in Space (Farnham: Lund Humphries, 2009) Template:ISBN.
• Wilkin, Karen, Anthony Caro: Interior and Exterior (Farnham: Lund Humphries, 2009) Template:ISBN.
• Julius Bryant, Julius, Anthony Caro: Figurative and Narrative Sculpture (Farnham: Lund Humphries, 2009) Template:ISBN.
• Westley Smith, H.F., Anthony Caro: Small Sculptures (Farnham, Lund Humphries, 2010) Template:ISBN.
• Moorhouse, Paul, Anthony Caro: Presence (Farnham, Lund Humphries, 2010) Template:ISBN.
• Saunders, Wade, Anthony Caro Recent Sculptures (Baltimore, C. Grimaldis Gallery, 1987).
• Millard, Charles, Anthony Caro Works of the 1980s (Baltimore, C. Grimaldis Gallery, 1989).
• Payton, Neal, "Anthony Caro Sculpture: Towards Architecture, Recent Bronzes" (Baltimore, C. Grimaldis Gallery, 1994) ASIN B0006RO25G.
• Adams, Virginia K., "Anthony Caro A Survey" (Baltimore, C. Grimaldis Gallery, 2004) ASIN B003X59K3C.
• Anthony Caro in the National Gallery of Australia's Kenneth Tyler Collection

External links

• Template:Commons category-inline
• Discussion of Early One Morning by Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke: Art Detective Podcast, 04 Jan 2017Template:Dead link