COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0005171
image_record_id
aahi0005171
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
Emma Dipper
Image Title:
full view
Work Dates (display):
1977
Work Dates type:
creation
Image Date (display):
2009-09-11
Work Creator (display):
Anthony Caro (English, 1924-2013)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
English sculptor. He had a conservative training from 1947 to 1952 at the Royal Academy Schools, London, which was greatly enriched by the two years (19513) he spent as assistant to Henry Moore, learning not only from his ideas but from the books in Moore's library. Woman Waking (1959; London, Tate) exemplifies Caro's work of the 1950s when he modelled figural works in a loosely expressionist vein that sought to express how the body felt from the inside out. The lumpy, awkward and ponderous masses of these works owe much to Picasso and Dubuffet, especially the latter's Corps de dames series of 1950. By the end of the decade Caro's growing dissatisfaction with this mode of working led him to experiment with other materials and more spontaneous effects, often explored during teaching projects at St Martin's School of Art, London, where he worked part-time from 1953. These experiments bore fruit after a visit to the USA from 1959 to 1960 during which he was influenced by the critic Clement Greenberg and by the work of such artists as Kenneth Noland and David Smith. On his return Caro began welding standardized metal units into abstract configurations, which were then further unified by being painted in a single primary colour. Although their syntax was derived from Cubism and was uncompromisingly abstract, these open form sculptures placed directly on the ground still related to the figure through their gestural or bodily calligraphy and scale. They rapidly took on a predominantly horizontal axis, a lyrical mood and a light open infrastructure of cantilevered planes and lines as in Early One Morning (1962; London, Tate). Caro denied the weight, appearance and attendant connotations of the material and made sculpture which seemed almost to hover above the ground, touching it lightly at several discrete points. Throughout the later 1960s Caro also made a number of small sculptures known as Table Pieces, incorporating tools, handles and other manual references in which he maintained an equivalence between size and scale without sacrificing that anonymous handling of material central to his practice. Caro's first solo show at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London brought him considerable critical attention. He was quickly regarded as a major figure for his role, both through his work and his teaching, in re-orientating the mainstream of modernist British sculpture into an abstract constructed mode. The previous decade had been dominated by the monumental monolithic sculpture of Moore, and by the so-called 'Geometry of Fear', eviscerated figurative sculpture by artists such as Reg Butler and Lynn Chadwick. Caro's example can be said to have created a new school in its wake. In 1972 Caro was invited to Verduggio in Italy where he found a factory that could provide him with a plentiful supply of irregularly shaped soft steel offcuts. Leaving the material raw, protected only by a coat of varnish, he manipulated these components into relatively simple planar configurations, often with a vertical orientation. His new-found affirmation of the literalness of the metal was offset by the associative character of its surfaces and textures as well as by the irregular shapes of the forms. These were akin to those found in the earlier paintings of Helen Frankenthaler, who had worked in his studio several months previously, and to the work of Jules Olitski. Following his major exhibition at MOMA, New York (1975), which subsequently toured the USA, his reputation in that country was high, notably in circles influenced by Greenberg's formalist aesthetic. A rare example of a public sculpture by Caro is National Gallery Ledge Piece commissioned by the National Gallery in Washington, DC, for the east building in 1978. By the end of the decade Caro's growing fascination with freely formed metal had led him to experiment in welding sheet bronze, in addition to casting from found objects like pots, both whole and broken. The resulting sculptures were more insistently Cubist in character than his work of previous years, and became looser and grander during the early 1980s. By mid-decade the organic, even figurative, associations generated in his abstract metal sculpture had acquired a fully representational counterpart in the series of small-scale modelled sculpture of female figures derived from life drawings. References to the art of the past, which in later work informed Caro's sculpture more overtly, erupted in 1986 into a series of paraphrases made after an 11th-century sandstone Indian carving which he greatly admired. As a result of these investigations he alternated between the two idioms of abstract constructed sculpture and modelled figural bronzes. (Lynne Cooke. "Caro, Anthony." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 17 Mar. 2009 .)
Work Style Period:
Contemporary
work_styleperiod
Contemporary
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
20th century
work_styleperiod
20th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
Minimal
work_styleperiod
Minimal
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
Abstract (fine arts style)
work_styleperiod
Abstract (fine arts style)
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
line
subject
line
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
memory
subject
memory
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
Picasso, Pablo (Spanish painter, sculptor, and printmaker, 1881-1973)
subject
Picasso, Pablo (Spanish painter, sculptor, and printmaker, 1881-1973)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
form (aesthetics)
subject
form (aesthetics)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
curves
subject
curves
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
outdoors
subject
outdoors
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
sculpture (visual works)
work_type
sculpture (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
sculptures and installations
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
sculptures and installations
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
painted steel
Work Measurements (display):
7 ft (H) x 5 ft 7 in (W) x 10.5 ft (D)
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
Tate Modern
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
exhibition
Work Location (Geographic) name:
London, England
Image Source Reproduction citation:
Taylor, Brandon. Contemporary Art: Art Since 1970. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005.
image_source_copy_from_print_name
Taylor, Brandon. Contemporary Art: Art Since 1970. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005.
Image Source Reproduction citation
false
Image Source Reproduction refid:
0-13-118174-2
Image Source Reproduction page number:
60
Image Source Reproduction refid type:
ISBN
Image Rights (display):
© John Riddy
Image Rights fair use checklist:
1) use of this image is for education and educational research; 2) access is restricted to University of Colorado and Auraria Higher Education Center communities; 3) the original photographer is credited if known; 4) the image is published; 5) the amount of the work in relation to the whole is needed for education or educational research; 6) the number of derivatives is the minimum required for education or educational research; 7) the image has not been found to be reasonably available for sale; 8) duplication of the image does not violate preexisting contracts.
Work Rights (display):
© Anthony Caro
Terms of Agreement and Conditions of Use:
YOU AGREE: Luna Imaging's Insight Software and the digital image collection associated with it (the Software) are being provided by the University of Colorado under the following license. By obtaining, using, and/or copying this work, you (the Licensee) agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and conditions. 1. The Software contains the University of Colorado's Department of Art and Art History's implementation of a digital image collection; 2. Any images obtained through use of the Software will be used only for non-profit, educational purposes; 3. The use of images obtained through the software will only be used while the Licensee is either: a) an employee of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver, or b) an enrolled student at the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver; 4. When the Licensee is no longer an employee or student of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or Community College of Denver, either by an action of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or the Community College of Denver or due to actions of the Licensee, the licensee will cease to use any images exported from the Department of Art and Art History's digital image collection; 5. The Licensee agrees to indemnify the University for claims and liability arising out of the use of the Software or for any violations of this license; 6. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SUPPLIES THE SOFTWARE WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
CU Copyright Statement:
The contents of the University of Colorado Digital Library are available for your use in research, teaching, and private study. Some of these items are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) and some items may have additional restrictions. If you use the items in this collection, make sure you abide by any restrictions stated in the descriptive data window. The nature of these collections often makes it difficult to determine the copyright status of an item. We have made every effort to provide information about copyright owners and other restrictions in the descriptive data window. Ultimately, however, it is your responsibility to use the item according to the terms governing its use. If you are a copyright holder and the information is either not listed or listed incorrectly, please let us know so that we can update the information on our site.
Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Collection
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see