Tony Cragg hails from Liverpool, where he was born in 1949. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London (1973-1977), among other places. By 1976, he had accepted a position as lecturer in Metz (France) and, from 1979 onwards, he taught at the Kunstakademie (Art Academy) in Dusseldorf, Germany. His works have been shown in many international exhibitions since the 1980’s and received numerous awards. Tony Cragg was appointed Rector of the Dusseldorf Academy in 2009.

Bolt, 2007, steel, 327,4x 114,4 x 114,5 cm

Cragg’s earlier works made use of found objects, all kinds of materials from all kinds of sources. He collected them while hiking in the woods and from waste dumps, thus achieving an intriguing combination of natural and artificial, man-made items. He would then apply them, for instance, to a wall so that they loosely filled in conspicuously shaped segments of the surface, marking it with many colours, sizes and forms. This allowed for a constant dialogue between the overall shape and the references and contrasts of each small fragment and object. Additionally, his formal range was broad, vacillating from the filigree to the crude, from the exquisite to the grotesque.

Good Face, 2001, bronze, 210 x 120 x 120 cm

Bad Guys, 2005, bronze, 68 x 84 x 86 cm

Cragg also made references to the human form, in both his wall reliefs and his sculptures, which, for some time, consisted of multi-layered monochrome material. In this series, he also created a number of works accentuating a trace of movement in space, as if some moving object had left a void, which had then been filled and condensed into a tangible shape. Later works seem to exploit the aesthetic qualities of irregularly twisted forms, standing in perfect equilibrium on the floor but conveying the impression of virtual movement and dynamic instability.

Wooden Crystal, 2001, wood, 285 x 120 x 105 cm

Exhibition:

Ein Hauch von Eden at Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie

Recent exhibitions:

Tony Cragg at Exhibition Road, 25 August - 25 November 2012, Exhibition Road, London