Caro inherited all his creative sources from the Russian Constructivists, Giacometti, Picasso's sculptures, Julio González and David Smith, the first sculptor to introduce welded iron sculpture in the United States. He took Moore's advance towards total abstraction to its conclusion, dispensing with figurative references and drawing the maximum expressive power from industrial materials such as beams, aluminium tubes and steel plates, preferring assemblage to sculpting or modelling.