The opening of the major Tony Cragg exhibition at Sculpture at Goodwood has caught the attention of the media world-wide. PHIL HEWITT discovered it's only one of the groundbreaking things taking place at the country's most important sculpture park this year.
The work of Turner Prize-winner Tony Cragg has gone on show in a major new exhibition at Sculpture at Goodwood - a big coup for both the venue and for Cragg himself. Running for at least a year, the show will be Cragg's most significant to date and is set in the estate's new four-acre extension dedicated to one-man exhibitions.
For Sculpture at Goodwood, the exhibition takes the unique attraction into the next chapter of its increasingly impressive history. Wilfred and Jeannette Cass established the Cass Sculpture Foundation in 1994 and through Sculpture at Goodwood, the Foundation's principal objective is to advance the public's enjoyment and appreciation of 21st century British sculpture.
The Foundation is now recognised worldwide, not only as a regularly-changing display of ongoing British sculptural activity; but also as a rapidly-growing educational archive. Now with a major solo exhibition from a major figure, Sculpture at Goodwood moves into the next phase. "We have been working on this for the past four years," Mr Cass said. "For it to be now happening is just amazingly exciting for us."
"We have landscaped what used to be a rubbish dump / chalkpit in four and a half acres of woodland for a set for one artist, and our intention is that we will give that artist one or two years of exhibition space."
Appropriately the first artist chosen is one who has long been supportive of Mr Cass and his work. "Tony Cragg is also one of the most important British artists we have, and we have him at the height of his abilities. We will be showing 12 large pieces by him," said Wilfred.
The display will be the largest exhibition of Tony Cragg's outdoor sculptures in Britain to date and will include several large sculptures produced specifically by the Cass Sculpture Foundation.
Tony Cragg (born 1949, Liverpool) attended Gloucestershire College of Art and Design, Cheltenham, and the Royal College of Art, London (1973-77), and since 1977 has lived and worked in Wuppertal, Germany. Cragg's international reputation has grown rapidly with exhibitions and retrospectives across the world, including recent exhibitions in the forecourt of Burlington House, London (1999), at the Tate Gallery, Liverpool (2000) and on the Terrace at Somerset House, London (2001). In 1988 he represented Britain at the 43rd Venice Biennale, the year he won the Turner Prize. In 1994 he was elected Royal Academician.
"He has had a long career," Mr Cass said. "He started when he was about 24 or something like that, and he is one of the most inventive artists in Britain. He is constantly changing his materials and the way he uses them."
"He is a little bit like a composer. He speaks quite a different language to most other artists but when you look at his works on the site, the pieces are all singing to each other. They are very exciting."
"To date he has exhibited around the world, and the sheer body of the work that he has done is in the range of Henry Moore. In my opinion he is the natural successor in our time."
"This exhibition will certainly be his most important, and the Foundation has put large finances into making it possible. Even an artist as well-known as Tony Cragg can't afford to make so many pieces that he basically is not selling. We have squared the circle and made it possible."
The exhibition features pieces in ceramic, stone, stainless steel and bronze. "Some of these pieces have probably taken two and a half years to come to fruition. We will keep it open for at least a year but probably two because I think this exhibition will get worldwide attention and not everyone comes to England every year."
At Sculpture at Goodwood work is now progressing rapidly on a new indoor gallery which will also be an educational centre for 21st century sculpture. "Eventually it will be the museum of the Foundation," Mr Cass explained. Its most important function is that it will display the accumulated archive of ten years of commissioning.
Since its inception it has enabled the fabrication of more than 120 key works by British sculptors including Anthony Caro, Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Antony Gormley, Thomas Heatherwick, Allen Jones, Phillip King, Langlands & Bell, Richard Long, David Mach, Eduardo Paolozzi, Tom Phillips, Marc Quinn, Gavin Turk, Richard Wentworth, Richard Wilson, and Bill Woodrow.
"Each one of these pieces has got all the initial drawings and so on. Together it will be a totally unique resource of what is happening in the 21st-century British sculpture." The building should be open next April.
Article by Phil Hewitt, first published on 2nd June 2005 edition of Chichester Observer Magazine. Photography by Leon Chew.
