TONY CRAGG : A RARE CATEGORY OF OBJECTS

Andrew Wallace ,of Andrew Wallace Architects + Interior Designers from Liverpool, went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and saw different exhibition, like the open air exposition of Tony Cragg.

A leanding artistof his generation, Tony Cragg’s practice grows from his fascination with the ‘vast storehouse’ of materials in the world and what he can make from them. Born in 1949, Cragg moved to Wuppertal (Germany) in 1977 and over the last forty years has created an extraordinary body of work , which he considers to be grouped into different families or series. 

The underground Gardens present key examples from the Early Forms and Rational Beings series. 

Early formes developed in 1980s and are all inspired by different vessels, including jam jars, test tubes and conical flasks. 

The Rational Beings, such as points of view (2013) and Tommy (2013), are all based on drawings of people, which Cragg evolves to near abstraction – glimpses of profiles only being apparent at certain angles. One of the largest works in this family. Mean Average (2013), is a play of interweaving columns – a relationship that the artist considers to be one of the most important in his work in the last decade. 

Sculpture is a three-dimensional art form and Cragg’s works are mde to be appreciated ‘in the around’ and from various angles. Willow (2014)  for example, appears very differently from changing perspectives, at some points seeming to fold it on itself, at other times extending toward the sky and the landscape beyond. It always possesses a great sense of energy and movement. 

Liverpool architects and achitects elsewhere in the UK may be interested to go to this exhibition.