ARTinvestment.RU tells about one of the most outstanding British sculptors

From September 25 to October 25, 2009 in Moscow will host The Third International Biennale of Contemporary Art. Among its members - a distinguished British sculptor Anthony ( "Tony"), Cragg (Anthony «Tony» Cragg).

Cragg was born in 1949 in Liverpool. From 1966 to 1968 he worked in the laboratory of the National Association for Research in rubber production. In 1969 enrolled in Glostershirsky College of Art in Cheltenham. Degree received in Wimbledon School of Art (1970-1973), and a master's degree - in the Royal College of Art (1973-1977). In 1976 he became a professor at the School of Fine Arts in the French city of Metz, and in 1977 moved to Germany and settled in the German city of Wuppertal, where he lives to this day. In the same year the sculptor first showed his work at the exhibition.

Cragg - one of the most prominent representatives of the movement "New British Sculpture", arose as a reaction to the minimalism of the 1970's. This movement also rank as Anish Kapoor (Anish Kapoor), Richard Deacon (Richard Deacon), Antony Gormley (Antony Gormley), Bill Woodrow (Bill Woodrow) and others. "New British Sculptors' famous for their fantastic, mostly Non-figurative objects, often performed on a vast scale. With the advent of this trend attributed the renewed interest in traditional materials, while Cragg and his colleagues with as much pleasure using industrial materials and all sorts of junk. A key group exhibition, "Objects and Sculpture", was held in 1981 at London's Institute of Contemporary Art. Works most of the New British Sculptors' Gallery presents Lisson, who in 1979 staged the first solo exhibition of Cragg.

According to Cragg, to nineteen years old he is not interested in sculpture. When cheltenhemskogo college students reported that they would engage in sculpture, the young artist thought: "God forbid! But not sculpture. I did not come here for that. But suddenly he found that it first seem dull, a lesson he likes. Teachers, inspired by the ideas of Marcel Duchamp (Marcel Duchamp), encouraged students to use unconventional materials - in particular, "everyday" objects. Students were taken to the storeroom, storing huge amount of rubbish, from which it was possible to create all sorts of interesting things. Cragg set to work reluctantly, but soon got carried away and by the end of the day was completely absorbed in creative work.

Among his early works Cragg allocated large assemblages in the form of parallelepipeds made from pieces of wood, bricks, rolls fabrics and other "unromantic" items. Later, he began to collect objects of one color and spread them on the floor in the form of various figures. Favorite materials of the sculptor was plastic, which attracted not only the "formal" but "conceptual" qualities - as a cheap, bright, mass produced material, an allegory of the consumer society. Plastic Cragg began to create and wall reliefs. The most famous of these works - "Britain seen from the North" (1981). It is made in the form of maps of Great Britain, rotated so that the top of the east and the north - to the left. Not far from the most northerly point is the figure of man (presumably himself Cragg, "watching" for Britain from the perspective of an outsider). This work - a commentary on the dire economic crisis that has raged in Britain in those years (especially the north had to be bad enough).

told in an interview with the artist ARTINFO.com, in the early 1980's he realized that "dyushanovskaya strategy", expressed in an endless search for new materials to create art, has exhausted itself. His focus has shifted to a more profound study of the possibilities already known materials, and he began to work with "traditional" in bronze and marble. Of course, your favorite plastic he did not leave. In the "arsenal" Cragg also includes wood, stone, ceramics, glass and Kevlar.

Every year the artist's sculptures are becoming more intricate. His main inspiration are the shape of the surrounding world, both organic and belonging to the world of things created by man. On the essence of his work the artist says: 'You know, looks like a pig, and you know, looks like an elephant - this is not surprising, because it is part of our reality. But just imagine: you're sitting in the park, and suddenly runs past you svinoslon. Of course, you will be terrified, because svinoslon - a new reality for you. In a sense, a sculptor busy that is trying to find this svinoslona, trying to find a phenomenon that did not exist. He is looking for angels, looking for dragons, seeking God, looking for all these creatures, which are not in our "useful" reality, but which, nevertheless, exist in the language. We can dream about them, they live in our language, our poetry, our thoughts and fantasies ».

most important in the career Cragg, probably should be considered in 1988. It was then that he had the honor to represent Britain at the 43rd Venice Biennale, where he received "special mention" of the jury. In addition, in 1988, Cragg was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize. But the fame of the sculptor from the 1980 have not faded: he regularly hosts exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. In autumn 2010 the artist's creations will be exhibited in the Louvre. Cragg sculptures are the most important collection of museums, including Tate Modern (London) and the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Paris). Russia's art lovers were able to get acquainted with the work of Cragg in 2005, when the Central House of Artists gave him a solo exhibition "The severity and tenderness." It was presented more than 50 large sculptures.

in September 2008 in Wuppertal, the Park of Sculptures by Tony Cragg. They exhibited 16 of his creations.

Cragg sculptures and drawings often appear in auctions. Record for his work is the sum of 90 thousand pounds, which brought the wooden "Finnish Totem" (2000) at Sotheby's on Oct. 13, 2006. Most aptly go sculptured head in a spirit of Futurism. One of them exhibited at Christie's auction on Feb. 12, 2009, was sold for 75 thousand pounds in the evaluation 60-80 thousand.

article prepared by Julia Maksimova, AI

Sources: Tony Cragg , tony - cragg.com , artinfo.com , artprice.com , artinvestment.ru

PS On the third parties Moscow Biennale of contemporary art can be found:

third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art . AES + F
third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. Christian Markle
third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. Yuri Albert
third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. El Anatsui
third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. Mikhail Grobman