Anthony Caro was born in 1924 in New Malden, Surrey. He could be the most influential living British sculptor and has played a pivotal role in the development of twentieth-century sculpture. After studying sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools in London, he worked as assistant to Henry Moore. His first major show was at the Whitechapel Gallery in…
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Anthony Caro was born in 1924 in New Malden, Surrey. He could be the most influential living British sculptor and has played a pivotal role in the development of twentieth-century sculpture.
After studying sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools in London, he worked as assistant to Henry Moore. His first major show was at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1963, where he exhibited large abstract welded steel sculptures, brightly painted and standing directly on the ground. This was a radical departure from the way art had hitherto been presented and was an attempt, as Caro put it, 'to make sculpture more real'. Over the ensuing decades, Caro has developed and expanded what he called 'the language of sculpture' as both an artist and as a highly influential teacher at St. Martin's School of Art in London from 1953 to 1981. His questioning approach opened up new possibilities, both formally and with regard to subject matter. He has, therefore, instigated a revolution in British sculpture over the past 40 years.
Caro often works in steel, but also in a diverse range of other materials, including bronze, silver, lead, wood and paper. Major exhibitions include retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1975), the Trajan's Market, Rome (1992) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1995), Sculpture into Architecture at the Tate, London (1991), Sculpture from Painting at the National Gallery, London (1998) and The Last Judgement at the Venice Biennale (1999). Caro had a major retrospective at Tate Britain, London in 1995.
He has been awarded many prizes, including the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture in Tokyo in 1992 and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Sculpture in 1997. He holds honorary degrees from universities in the UK, USA and Europe. Caro was knighted in 1987 and received the Order of Merit in May 2000. Sir Anthony was also part of the design team for the Millennium Bridge that runs from St Paul's Cathedral to Tate Modern across the Thames.
