Anthony Caro

Anthony Caro
Ruth Gledhill · CC BY-SA 2.5 · source
Name	Anthony Caro
Caption	Caro in 1966
Birth name	Anthony Alfred Caro
Birth date	8 March 1924
Birth place	New Malden, Surrey, England
Death date	23 October 2013
Death place	London, England
Nationality	British
Education	Charterhouse School, Christ's College, Cambridge, Regent Street Polytechnic, Royal Academy Schools
Known for	Sculpture, Abstract art
Movement	Modern sculpture, Post-painterly abstraction
Notable works	Early One Morning, Midday, The Last Judgement
Awards	Knight Bachelor, Order of Merit (Commonwealth)

Anthony Caro was a pioneering British sculptor whose radical work in the 1960s fundamentally reshaped the course of modern sculpture. He is celebrated for his large, abstract, painted steel constructions, which he placed directly on the ground, abolishing the traditional pedestal and creating a new, direct relationship between the artwork and the viewer. His innovative approach, developed after a pivotal period assisting Henry Moore and a transformative visit to the United States, positioned him as a central figure in the development of abstract art in the post-war era. Caro's influential career spanned over five decades, earning him major retrospectives at institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Gallery, and prestigious honors including a knighthood and the Order of Merit.

Early life and education

Anthony Alfred Caro was born in New Malden, Surrey, into a family of Jewish descent. He was educated at the prestigious Charterhouse School before studying engineering at Christ's College, Cambridge. After serving in the Royal Navy during the latter part of the Second World War, he pursued his artistic interests, initially training as a painter at the Regent Street Polytechnic. He then enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools in London, where he shifted his focus to sculpture, winning several awards including the coveted Rome Prize in 1952, which allowed him to spend a year in Italy.

Career and artistic development

Upon returning to London, Caro worked as a part-time assistant to Henry Moore in the late 1950s, an experience that provided technical grounding but from which he sought to break away artistically. A transformative 1959 visit to the United States, where he met influential critics like Clement Greenberg and artists such as David Smith and Kenneth Noland, catalyzed a dramatic change in his work. Abandoning his earlier figurative style and modeled clay or bronze, Caro began constructing large, abstract assemblages from prefabricated industrial materials like I-beams, steel plates, and aluminum. He painted these works in bold, uniform colors, removing them from the pedestal to sit directly on the floor or ground, a revolutionary act that engaged the viewer in a more immediate, spatial encounter. This period established his international reputation, cemented by a landmark 1963 exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Major works and public sculptures

Among his most celebrated early works is Early One Morning (1962), a sprawling red steel construction now in the collection of the Tate. Other seminal pieces from this prolific period include the yellow Sun Feast (1969-70) and the complex, multi-part The Last Judgement (1999-2000). From the 1970s onward, Caro's work expanded in scale and material, leading to numerous major public commissions worldwide. Notable examples include Promenade (1996) at the Château de Chambord, London Pride (1997) on the Thames Embankment, and The Barbarians (2008-09) for the British Museum. He also created ambitious series like the Trojan War sculptures and explored more intimate, table-top scale pieces, demonstrating remarkable versatility across his long career.

Influence and legacy

Caro's elimination of the pedestal and his synthesis of Constructivist principles with a distinctly American formalist sensibility had a profound impact on a generation of sculptors on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. He directly influenced his students at Saint Martin's School of Art, where he taught for over two decades, fostering the development of the New Generation of British sculptors. His work is held in the permanent collections of major museums globally, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Major retrospectives of his work have been staged by the Museum of Modern Art (1975), the Tate Gallery (1991), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2011).

Personal life

In 1949, he married the painter Sheila Girling, who was a constant collaborator and critic of his work; they had two sons. Caro was knighted in 1987 and was appointed to the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000, one of the highest distinctions in British culture. He continued to work prolifically into his late eighties, maintaining studios in London and New York State. Anthony Caro died of a heart attack in London in 2013 at the age of eighty-nine.

Category:British sculptors Category:1924 births Category:2013 deaths