The artist's sculptures can be described as visual appropriations of forms and structures from the complex world in which we live. He derives both the conception of the content and the diverse vocabulary of forms from an attempt to come to terms with organic life forms.
The Buchmann Galerie is pleased to announce an exhibition of new sculptures by Tony Cragg.
Tony Cragg (b. 1949, lives and works in Wuppertal) is one of the most important sculptors of our time. His work testifies to a method in which questions of figuration and their sculptural solutions are repeatedly taken up and refined. Tony Cragg's sculptures can be described as visual appropriations of forms and structures from the complex world in which we live. He derives both the conception of the content and the diverse vocabulary of forms from an attempt to come to terms with organic life forms and microbiological structures as well as from his work with profane consumer materials and modern technology. In the process, Tony Cragg examines the principles of different realms of life such as nature, technology, civilization, and art in terms of their fundamental elements and structures.
The continuity and validity of his work is due to fundamental questions about the relationship of body, material, object and space that Tony Cragg has been addressing continuously for years now. The diversity of materials, sculptural techniques, and solutions exhibited is exemplary of the artist's encyclopedically evolving oeuvre; his extraordinary importance as a sculptor was already impressively demonstrated when he was awarded the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture in 2007.
Tony Cragg studied at the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design in Cheltenham, the Wimbledon School of Art from 1968 to 1973 and until 1977 at the Royal College of Art. Tony Cragg moved to Wuppertal in 1977. From 1978 he started teaching at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and was director of the Kunstakademie from 2009 to 2013.
In 1988 Tony Cragg represented Great Britain at the 43rd Venice Biennale and won the Turner Prize in the same year. He was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2002. In 2007 he was awarded the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture and in 2009 received a Honorary Doctor of the Royal College of Art, London. In 2013 he was awarded the Chaire de Création Artistique of the Collège de France.
Recent solo exhibitions by Tony Cragg include the Musée du Louvre Paris, the Scottish National Gallery Edinburgh, the Nasher Sculpture Center Dallas, the CAFA Museum Beijing, the Heydar Aliyev Center Baku or the Musée d'Art Moderne St. Étienne.
Tony Cragg lives and works in Wuppertal, where he founded the sculpture park Waldfrieden to show works by international renowned sculptors.
Opening: Saturday, 21 March, 6–8pm
Buchmann Galerie
Charlottenstrasse 13 10969 Berlin
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 11am–6pm