Anthony Caro, Terminus (2013), via Art Observed

In the early years of his career, Anthony Caro worked on a series of twisting, enigmatic depictions of human and animal figures, works that owed much to the spatial interrogations of Picasso and the broader canon of 20th Century European abstraction.  The works are impressive in their understanding of the gestural and conceptual operations of the era’s avant-garde, but for Caro’s career, served in part as a starting point for his own engagement with space, not only on paper or canvas, but in three dimensions.  This engagement with the dual acts of perception and depiction, sight and operation, takes center stage at Mitchell-Innes & Nash this month, as the late artist’s final sculptures are shown alongside some of his first drawings and paintings, a rare opportunity to appreciate the range of evolution the artist reached during the course of his prolific career.

Anthony Caro, First Drawings Last Sculptures (Installation View), via Art Observed  (more…)

Anthony Caro, Sunshine (1964), via Sotheby’s

Curated by Royal Academy Artistic Director Tim Marlow, Sotheby’s  tenth edition of its outdoor sculpture exhibition at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, titled Beyond Limits, swings for the fences with its studious and somewhat understated take on the impact and influence of Britain’s sculptural greats over the past 65 years.  Tracing lines of exchange and dialogue from the formal innovations of the 1950’s and 60’s through the irreverent inversions of the YBA’s during the 1990’s and on to the present, the exhibition is an intriguing examination on Britain’s own sense of the art historical as much as it is a review of its products. (more…)

Sir Anthony Caro, via New York Times

The widely recognized British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro passed away today after suffering a heart attack.  He was 89.  A former assistant to Henry Moore, Caro first made a name for himself in the 1950’s and 60’s, creating roughly rendered, abstract structures which he used as a gradual transition away from the traditionally figurative work of the medium.  “I have been trying to eliminate references and make truly abstract sculpture, composing the parts of the pieces like notes in music,” he said in 1975.

Sir Anthony Caro, Déjeuner sur l’herbe II (1989), via Tate Modern (more…)

The Wall Street Journal recently sat down with sculptor Anthony Caro, who is currently in the middle of a series of shows in Europe, including exhibition at the Venice Biennale and a soon to open show at Gagosian Gallery.  Speaking with the newspaper, Mr. Caro discussed his prolific output, working approach, and his preference to work on sculptures at full-scale. “I’m never comfortable working on something that has to be imagined bigger or different,” he says. (more…)

Installation view of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Caro on the Roof”, 2011. All images via The Metropolitan Museum

Currently on view at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art is “Caro on the Roof”, an installation featuring selected works of renowned British sculptor, Anthony Caro (b.1924). The installation culls together five large scale steel sculptures spanning the artist’s sixty year career, and will be open until October 30th, 2011. The Met’s roof has in the past shown work by Jeff Koons and Doug and Mike Starn, whose popular Big Bambú installation is currently showing at the Venice Biennale.

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Alfred Gilbert, Jubilee Memorial to Queen Victoria (1887). Via The Guardian

It is understandable that critics are particularly divided in their reviews of Modern British Sculpture, at the Royal Academy of Arts through April 7. It attempts to question “What is British, what is modern and what is sculpture” ranging as far and wide as the African and Asian colonial influences of 20th century British sculptors, to the transitions between figurative and abstraction, to the work of Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst. The show runs the gamut of well-known names but has fun throwing in the odd obscurity, like Alfred Gilbert’s Jubilee Memorial to Queen Victoria, a baroque piece by a classic British artist that is decidedly out of context in this exhibition. More familiar are Anthony Caro, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, who are newly contextualized in this first exhibition in 30 years to focus on 20th century British sculpture—its origins, evolution, and impact.

Damien Hirst, Let’s Eat Outdoors Today (1990). Via The Guardian

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