British Art 1975 to Present Day

Anthony Caro was born in 1924 in New Malden, Surrey and studied sculpture at the Regent Street Polytechnic (1946-47) before attending the Royal Academy Schools (1947-52).

In 1951 before he had finished his studies, he went to work at Much Hadham, Hertfordshire as a part-time assistant to Henry Moore.

However, by the 1960s and after a visit to New York, Caro reacted to Moore's ideas, particularly in his use of materials.

Caro abandoned carving preferring an additive process of building up his work.  His radical new approach to sculpture at this time, led some to describe Caro as playing a pivotal role in the development of British Sculpture in the post war period.

Caro came to wide public attention with a show at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1963  where he exhibited large abstract sculptures, brightly painted and standing directly on the ground so that they engaged the spectator on a one-to-one basis.

This was a radical departure from the way sculpture had been seen before and paved the way for a series of sculptural developments in his work. His inventive approach is seen in this sculpture.

In 1981 Caro attended Ken Tyler’s Graphic studio in New York, where he made a series of unique sculptures in handmade paper, which were mostly three dimensional wall reliefs.