Sir Anthony Caro, one of the greatest sculptors of his generation, has died following a sudden heart attack. He was 89.
Caro is credited as having a profound influence on the development of the medium in the latter half of the twentieth century. He first came to public attention with a show at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1963, where he exhibited large abstract sculptures brightly painted and placed directly on the ground. This was a radical departure, marking a shift in the viewer’s relationship to the work and, in the process, paved the way the way for new directions in the art form.
A pupil of Charterhouse School and Christ’s College Cambridge, he graduated with a degree in engineering. After studying sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools in London from 1947-1952, he worked as an assistant to Henry Moore in the 1950s.
Among his major exhibitions, are retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1975), the Trajan Markets, Rome (1992), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1995), Tate Britain, London (2005), and three museums in Pas-de-Calais, France (2008), to accompany the opening of his Chapel of Light at Bourbourg. His work has been collected by museums throughout the world.
In 1997 he was named as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Sculpture in 1997. He was knighted in 1987 and received the Order of Merit in May 2000.
Nicholas Serota, Director at Tate, commented: “Anthony Caro was one of the outstanding sculptors of the past 50 years alongside David Smith, Eduardo Chillida, Donald Judd and Richard Serra. Caro was a man of great humility and humanity whose abundant creativity, even as he approached the age of 90, was still evident in the most recent work shown in exhibitions in Venice and London earlier this year.”
a-n’s Director, Susan Jones said: “Anthony Caro was a speaker, as I was, at Glasgow School of Art’s Dangerous Ground: Sculpture in the City conference in 1999. A supporter of a-n’s work with and for artists, after his lecture he gave generously with his time. We discussed notions of collaboration and interdisciplinarity within contemporary public art practice, assisting me to hone the propositions I would make in my own presentation the following day.”
Caro had continued working up until his death, saying he would “be bored” if he stopped. A show of his new work opened at the Gagosian Gallery in London in June.
