Anthony Caro (1924-2013)
Rhizome, 1970
Painted steel
Courtesy of the Leonid and Tatiana Nevzlin Collection
The British artist Sir Anthony Alfred Caro was considered the most important abstract sculptor of his generation. he crafted human-sized organic shapes from found industrial objects. These self-supporting sculptures – set directly on the floor – convey a nuanced understanding of the relationship between objects and the space they occupy.
Must Know
Sir Anthony Alfred Caro, CBE, born in a Jewish family, was an english modern sculptor considered the most important of his generation. His first major exhibition, in 1963 in Whitechapel gallery, was a turning point in Caro’s career. he exhibited large-scale, three-dimensional outdoor sculptures, which was a defining moment in the history of British art, where sculpture shifted in its form, material and subject. Caro fundamentally engaged himself into the abstraction, therefore helping to depart it from conservative and traditional aesthetics.
More Info
His sculptures are self-supporting and sit directly on the floor, which was quite radical in the 1960s and 1970s, a time where sculptures were generally standing on a pedestal. It gave the artworks a brand-new dynamic in the exhibition space, and above all in the relation between the object and the viewer. Thus, it shaped a new vocabulary, bringing the sculptural language into a more contemporary body of art. This milestone in the world of sculpture structured new shapes with new forms, and assembled material with industry. By remodeling shapes and forms, Caro bounded the historical figurative forms with abstraction and contemporaneity.
he crafted human-sized organic shapes from found industrial objects, as though his works conveyed a nuanced understanding of the relationship between objects and the space they occupy. he also explored other materials, such as wood, paper, lead and ceramic, on different scales and played on the assemblage of everyday objects, their disintegration and modernization. The expansion in the use of different materials is an inherent part in Caro’s work, as he was challenged all his life to innovate and search for new connections and reflections, making him an influential sculptor up until the end of his life.
