Tony Cragg
Biography
Tony Cragg comes from Liverpool, where he was born in 1949. He studied, among others, at the Royal College of Art in London (1973-77), got a lectureship in Metz (France) already in 1976. Since 1979 he has taught at the State Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, of which he became the rector in 2009.
In his earlier works he used found objects, no matter what, no matter where from. He collected them while hiking in the woods and on garbage dumps. This resulted in an appealing combination of natural and man-made things. He pinned the things to walls so that they filled a specially shaped part of the wall in loose distribution, breaking it up with many colors and different shapes. A constant dialogue between the overall form and the references and contrasts between the individual parts made these works exceedingly lively. His formal spectrum was also broad, ranging from the filigree to the coarse, from the exquisite to the grotesque.
Cragg also referenced the human form, both in his wall reliefs and in his sculptures, which for a time consisted of multi-layered but monochromatic material. In this series, he also created a number of works that accentuated the trace of movement in space, as if a moving object had left a void that was filled in, becoming an object that could be touched. Later works are concerned with exploring the aesthetic properties of irregularly twisted forms that, while resting in perfect balance on the floor, give the impression of apparent motion and moving uncertainty.
When a shape changes, our ideas about it change. For example, when a person's facial expressions change, we know that their feelings are changing. We can read that. This is perhaps the simplest example of a relationship of ideas and form. It is the same when we look at the whole figure. It is a system of signals.

Ausstellungen
Museum exhibition (collection)
Tony Cragg Espécies Raras, 23.11.2019 - 01.03.2020, Museu Brasileiro da Escultura e Ecologia, São Paulo
Tony Cragg in Boboli Gardens, 5.05.2019 - 27.10.2019, Florenz
Tony Cragg - Skulpturen und Zeichnungen 02.06.2019 - 06.10.2019, Franz Marc Museum, Kochel
Tony Cragg - New Works, 09.02.2019 - 12.05.2019, Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Wuppertal
"Das andere Sehen", 26.01.2018 - 29.06.2018, Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, München
Tony Cragg: Sculptures and Watercolors, 27.08.2017 - 22.10.2017, Ludwig Museum Koblenz
Tony Cragg: Unnatural Selection, 02.12.2016 - 27.03.2017, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt
Tony Cragg - Retrospektive - "Parts of the World", bis 14.08.2016, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal
"40 Jahre - 40 Künstler - 40 Werke", bis März 2016, Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg
Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden - Cragg Foundation, Dauerausstellung, Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Wuppertal
Skulpturenpark, bis Dezember 2014, Stiftung Sculpture at Schoenthal, Kloster Schoenthal/Langenbruck
Spuren der Moderne: 20 Jahre Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, bis 19.10.2014, Kunstmuseum WolfsburgTony Cragg, 09.04.2014 - 31.08.2014, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku
Auf der Spur der Erfindung - Bildhauer zeichnen, noch bis 10.08.2014, Akademie-Galerie, Die Neue Sammlung, Düsseldorf
Macht. Wahn. Vision. Rapunzel & Co. Von Türmen und Menschen in der Kunst, noch bis 31.08.2014, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen
lens-based sculpture. Die Veränderung der Skulptur durch die Fotografie, 24.01.2014 - 21.04.2014, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
Kunst. Bewegt. 04. Arman, Christo, Tony Cragg..., bis 15.03.2014, Museum Schloss Moyland
Ruhe-Störung - Streifzüge durch die Welten der Collage, bis 26.01.2014, MARTa Herford
Franz Xaver Messerschmidt and Modernity, bis 24.02.2013, Getty Museum, Los Angeles
R/Evolution auf Papier, bis 20.01.2013, Alte Pinakothek, MünchenTony Cragg at Exhibition Road, 25.08.2012 - 25.11.2012, Exhibition Road, London
Tony Cragg: Seeing Things , 10.09.2011 – 08.01.2012, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, USA
Tony Cragg: Sculptures and Drawings, 30.07.2011 – 6.11.2011, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Großbritannien