Photograph courtesy
Gagosian Gallery by Mike Bruce
Venice: Caro
at Correr Museum. In the splendid rooms
of the Museo Correr, until October 27, the first major Italian retrospective
dedicated to one of the greatest of living sculptors, Sir Anthony Caro. The
versatile British artist has radically “revolutionized” his art. After a
strictly figurative beginning, under the influence of his teacher, Henry Moore,
he drifted away from sculptural tradition to create revolutionary
assemblages, welded and bolted together, painted in bright colors and
positioned on the floor within the viewer’s space; these were abstract works
but rich in ideal content. This new, fascinating sculptural language
established him as a key figure in the development of 20th century sculpture
alongside David Smith, Mark Di Suvero and Richard Serra.
Venice: Caro
at Correr Museum. Caro’s favorite
material is steel, but Caro also experiments with many other materials,
including bronze, wood, paper and lead. His assemblages of two-dimensional
metal elements became the emblem of new British sculpture, a starting point and
influence for all the later generations.
A symbol of all that is new and modern in sculpture, Anthony Caro is
present in all the most important international events: it is worth recalling
his first personal show at André Emmerich in New York in 1964, his
participation, as the only sculptor, at the British pavilion of the 1966
edition of the Venice Biennale, the retrospective at the MoMA in New York in
1975, the 1984 exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and, finally,
his work with Normal Foster for the Millennium Bridge.
Above. Emma
Push Frame, 1977-78 – steel rusted, blacked and painted.
Anthony
Caro - Table Piece Y-98 ‘Dejeuner sur l’herbe II’, 1989 – steel, rusted.
Anthony Caro – Orangerie (detail),
1969 – painted steel.
Pin It
