Candice Clark
AVT 101
Midterm Assignment
Anthony Cragg, who is known as Tony Cragg, artwork evokes a sense of awe and wonderment from his unique way of turning trash into treasure to his ability to create hidden images in abstract pieces. The British artist was born in Liverpool in 1949, and has currently lived in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977. He began by using found, discarded, and disposed materials in many of his works and installations. He later began using more traditional materials, such as bronze, wood, and marble, often making simple forms from them.
Cragg’s sculptures aren’t made form factories; rather, he creates each work himself. In an interview with ArtInfo, Cragg explains the drive behind his work,
“There is this idea that sculpture is static, or maybe even dead, but I feel absolutely contrary to that… I want that material to have a dynamic, to push and move and grow…”His installations take on the shape of graphic forms from afar, while up close, he has a way of connecting dissimilar pieces and giving them life through color and placement. Being a graphic design major, I can appreciate this factor because I know in my work, the details are what count. I chose Cragg for that very reason. In my field of choice, typography, one has to be able to create an image with complex detail using simple building blocks, such as words. Words, like Cragg’s found material, have their own form, but arranged differently can evoke a different meaning to whomever the audience may be. In the same interview with ArtInfo, Cragg stated that he wants growth to happen over the course of making things, so generations of sculptures keep developing.
An insightful biography written by CASS Sculpture Foundation stated that “An artist of great international acclaim and immense energy, Cragg has developed more possibilities in the making of sculpture than any other sculptor since Henry Moore discovered the 'hole' as positive space.” Cragg admits to be influenced by are scientists and philosophers like Isaac Newton and Alain Prochiantz, in the interview with ArtInfo. This is understandable when you view his works that resemble area houses, steel constructions, and laboratory equipment.
He has invested time in using vast numbers of unique materials and tested them to their limits through a wide variety of means. His contribution to contemporary sculpture is significant. From his early found material pieces of the 1970s to later work that showed his interest of surface quality and how that could be changed, Cragg’s versatility shows his skill in a wide range of materials. The final products range from delicate to the bizarre in steel, bronze, rubber, plastic, wood, glass, plaster and even drawings and paintings.
Although his talents are known and discussed, a particularly trend I see in his work isn’t talked about much. In a lot of his marble/bronze/steel sculptures, Cragg uses abstract shapes that delicately produce the shape of a face. If one were to just glance at his sculpture, it would just look very dynamic and have the illusion of motion, but upon further observation, face profiles can be seen. This small, yet intricate detail allows for the viewer to interact with his pieces making them truly interesting. I’d love to be able to see these larger than life scale masterpieces if possible because of the unique abstraction. I personally relate to this because I am the kind of person to look for faces in inanimate objects, and upon realizing the purposeful sculpting Cragg has done, I appreciate his work even more.
