“As I transform the material with my hands, the material simultaneously transforms me,” writes British sculptor Tony Cragg. Throughout the almost fifty years he has been active on the art scene, he has gradually established himself as one of world art’s biggest stars. In other words, it is no small event when Kistefos Museum invites us into this British sculptor’s rich world this summer. About Tony Cragg Photo: Till Brönner British-German sculptor, graphic artist and contemporary artist, born in Liverpool in 1949. Works primarily with casting as a method. Cragg has exhibited in the Boboli Gardens in Florence and in Madison Square Park in New York. Received the Turner Prize in 1988. Was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2016. Has executed a sculpture for Skulpturlandskap Nordland. Since 1977 he has lived and worked in the German city of Wuppertal, where in 2008 he established his own sculpture park. But what makes Tony Cragg such a high star? Why do his sculptures appeal to people across the globe? Personally, I think it is about the genuinely investigative aspect of his project: that the forms are never constructed, but spring from an exploration of different types of materials. Whether he works with marble, bronze or wood or plastic, his interest in the material is always the starting point. Tony Cragg loves to create expressions that are experienced differently from different angles. In the work “Points of View”, at first glance we see only three abstract, organically shaped chess pieces, blue columns, before we get to a distance, and clear facial profiles emerge in the play between the positive and the negative form. The sculpture in the foreground can both resemble a human hip, but also a stylized winged being, such as an angel or a bird. Photo: Michael Richter Science and industry Cragg worked as a laboratory assistant when he was young, and later also in a foundry. As a sculptor, he draws widely on both of these experiences. The scientific approach meant that he did not follow his fellow students around the art museums to study classical and modernist sculptural expressions. Instead, he stood transfixed at the natural history museum and admired everything from animal bones and fossils to botanical and geological phenomena. Working in the foundry opened his eyes to the inherent beauty of everyday industrial forms. “I love putting things inside of things”, says Tony Cragg. The sculpture “Lost in Thoughts” shows his fascination for the overlap between the surface and other underlying surfaces and for rooms within rooms. The resistance of objects and bodies to gravity is central to Tony Cragg. Most of his sculptures are standing and explore the experience of a balance point. “Paradosso” shows the engaging aspect of Cragg’s sculptures. Here we see how he draws inspiration from the world of geology with shapes that can resemble sedimentary (layered) rocks. Surfaces shaped by wind, ice or sand over millennia. At first glance, this unconventional self-portrait looks like an abstracted cone shape … before you catch sight of all the faces. This is a quality that Cragg often strives for: that the expression at first glance pretends to be something other than what it is. Or that it transforms when you change the point of view. A real mystic It really is a deep, sensual pleasure to wander among Cragg’s characteristic sculptures in the white exhibition hall The Twist, which winds so beautifully over the Randselva. I am left pondering Cragg’s own insistence on himself as an arch-materialist. Because I can’t help thinking that his deep interest in the infinity of matter has something almost metaphysical about it. In this unique sculpture, he has transformed a boat by screwing a wealth of hooks into the hull. The hooks become like growths, as if the boat is overgrown at the bottom of the sea. In this sculpture (which is also an installation) he creates a delicate balance between repetition and variation. From a distance it is perceived as a holistic form, but when we get closer, we are suddenly in something figurative, in the middle of the glassblower’s workshop. He dwells on the material properties and the pure appearance of the form, like a true mystic. “The material transforms me while I transform it,” he says. On the basis of such statements, I am tempted to call him a spiritual materialist. And I am convinced that it is precisely this enigmatic duality of his sculptures that has enabled him to enchant an entire world. By all means, don’t miss this exhibition at Kistefos! SEE: art critic Mona Pahle Bjerke talks about the exhibition in Nyhetsmorgen on 11 July. news reviewer Photo: Michael Richter Title: “Material in Mind” Artist: Tony Cragg Location: Kistefos, Jevnaker Estimated time: 20 to 50 minutes Date: 29 April–15. October 2023
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“Tony Cragg – Material in Mind” at Kistefos – Reviews and recommendations
