| British sculptor Date of Birth: 09.04.1949 Country: Great Britain |
Tony Cragg is a British sculptor who was born on April 9, 1949, in Liverpool. He grew up in a family of an aviation production engineer. In 1966, Cragg began working as a technician at the National Rubber Producers Association until 1968. During this time, he developed an interest in art and enrolled in art courses at the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design in Cheltenham. He later continued his studies at Wimbledon School of Art from 1969 to 1973 under the guidance of Roger Ackling, who introduced him to sculptors Richard Long and Bill Woodrow.
Cragg completed his education at the Royal College of Art from 1973 to 1977. After finishing his studies, he left the UK in 1977 and relocated to Wuppertal, Germany, where he has lived and worked ever since.
Many of Cragg's early works were created using found materials and everyday objects. During the 1970s, he experimented with techniques such as folding, dividing, and fracturing to create sculptures. In 1977, after moving to Germany, Cragg started making floor sculptures using various household items, including plastic toy cars and pieces of plastic he found on the streets, sorted by color.
Cragg chose plastic as his preferred material, rejecting the "heavy dramatics" of steel sculptures. Some of his wall and floor pieces carried an explicit ideological message, especially the wall sculptures in which plastic fragments were arranged to depict policemen or riot squad members dispersing a demonstration. The content and style of his artwork can be associated with the British punk revolution of 1977-79, which turned unwanted materials into fashion and protest cries into music.
In 1984, Cragg found ancient symbolism within contemporary debris. He transformed decommissioned pieces of wood into large three-dimensional structures representing the head of a bull, a boat, or a horn. In 1981, he participated in the groundbreaking exhibition "Objects and Sculpture" at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the Arnolfini gallery in Bristol, where the use of "urban materials" became a norm. Cragg collaborated with other artists such as Bill Woodrow, Edward Allington, Richard Deacon, Anthony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Bryan Organ, Peter Randall-Page, and Jean-Luc Vilmouth.
Following the success of the exhibition, Cragg went on to showcase his artwork in various exhibitions, including the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1982. He continued to explore new materials and textures, incorporating materials like formica, plastic, and other DIY materials into his sculptures. Later in his career, Cragg began working with more traditional materials such as wood, bronze, and marble, often creating simple forms.
Cragg's contributions to the field of sculpture were recognized with numerous awards and honors. He received the Turner Prize in 1988 and the Imperial Prize in 2007. One of his most significant large-scale works, "Terris Novalis," was installed in the UK in 1997.
Tony Cragg's innovative approach to sculpture and his exploration of materials have made him a prominent figure in the art world. His works continue to be exhibited and celebrated internationally.