Anthony Caro

During his lifetime, Anthony Caro has extended the tradition of constructed sculpture established in the early nineteenth century by Pablo Picasso. He was the first to create large sculptures that spread out along the ground both independent of base and pedestal. In creating these works of art, Caro broke with “totemic” conventions in which the work rose to confront the viewer. He is the first in modern sculpture whose work is a non-pictorial, and integrally three-dimensional.
Anthony Caro was born near London England to a Jewish family of four. After studying sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools in London, he worked as assistant to Henry Moore. In 1953, Sir Caro became interested in Picasso’s expressionistic animal images as a possible alternative to Moore’s influence. In an attempt to find new and freer ways of working, Caro used found objects as beginnings for sculptures. Later that year, he broadened his influence when surrealist sculptor, Peter King, acquaints Caro with American Abstract Expressionism and the paintings of Jackson Pollock. “I take anonymous units and try to make them cohere in an open way into a sculptural whole. Like music, I would like my sculpture to be the expression of a feeling in terms of the material.”
To add his revolution, Caro taught at St Martin’s School of Art in London (1953-1981) where he was very influential. His questioning approach opened up new possibilities, both formally and with regard to subject matter. His innovative work as well as his teaching led to a flowering new confidence in sculpture worldwide. It was here that he integrated sculpture and drawing into a single class with a view to understanding rather than copying a subject.
The problem of gravity had plagued Caro in his early figurative work. Caro free himself by moving his works into lateral construction. This was accompanied by a new, anti-expressionistic optimism. He was now able to eliminate the sense of downward pressure while cantilevering his parts for a sense of lightness. Picasso had previously done this. He furthered his liberation from by painting his sculptors, which in turn suppressed the viewer’s recognition of the heavy steel.
A few of Caro’s early-unknown works are finished in a polychrome color, but in a short period of time during 1960, Caro experimentally arrived at monochromy. Caro’s monochrome color in most of his work helps to visually unify a type of sculpture that, in the extreme dispersal of it’s parts, risked being to difficult for the eye to pull together.
His first one-man exhibition was held in Milan, and showcased 20 sculptures. While reviews were positive, they emphasized that this is just the beginning of his quest. He continued to develop his method, and in 1959 he took his work off the traditional pedestal. By 1960 he made his first abstract sculptures in steel, starting with Twenty Four Hours (1961), now in the Tate Gallery collection. This new medium sparked a radical change in his ideas and forced him to rethink his teaching methods. He and Frank Martin set up a welding shop at St Martin's. The experimental atmosphere in school, and working relationship with students, provided a forum for stimulating exchanges.
He came to public attention with a show at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1963, where he exhibited large abstract sculptures brightly painted and standing directly on the ground. They engage the spectator on a one-to-one basis. This was a radical departure from the way sculpture had previously been seen, and paved the way for future developments in three-dimensional art.
In 1963, Caro was challenged by friend and fellow artist Kenneth Noland to work in series, which he has done many times since. A large garage belonging to the Bennington College Fire Department was made available for Caro's use as a temporary studio. It was here produces a number of works. His works were gaining popularity throughout the art world, and he was soon doing one-man shows on a yearly basis. His simple parts became intrinsically relational. Caro’s best works were limited to three or four discrete elements, all shaped differently, posed differently, and none particularly interesting alone. Caro didn’t physically create most of the shapes used in his steel sculptures (although he did choose them), so his inventiveness was focused on the rapport of the object utilized.
Some of Caro’s early sculptures are approximately symmetrical. What is noted though, is that Caro had no desire for such symmetry, but arrived at it improvisationally. During a time of American Abstract Expressionism, Caro’s work appeared to be relaxed, yet serious. The symmetry of his work served only as a backdrop for an interest that lay in asymmetrical forms. On the other hand, most of Caro’s works were asymmetrical, and thus invade space in a complicated way. His later work shifted as far as becoming polyaxial.
His technique allowed the viewer to have unimpeded access to the work on all sides. The viewing point for the sculpture is multiple and it no longer has a single focus (it has long and short sides, but no front or back). Consequently, like the Minimalist art that was emerging in America at about the same time, Caro’s work has an unprecedented force as a mere object, occupying physical space without pretending to represent some other material.
Anthony Caro has played a pivotal role in the history of twentieth-century sculpture. His 'breakthrough' sculptures of the early sixties took sculptures off their pedestals and placed them directly in the viewer¹s space. Caro placed his painted steel works directly on the floor, eschewing the base. This opened up a wide range of expressive possibilities most important of which is the immediacy of the viewer’s response. Besides the large, complex abstract works, Caro has also made small tabletop sculptures, large towers and religious figures. His radical approach freed up the subject matter of sculpture, and has been an example to many of today’s modern sculptures. Caro has said: "All I want to do is to give vitality to the form. I do not intend to break with the past, but to stay vital sculpture needs to be re-invented again and again."

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