Biography of Anthony Caro
Few sculptors who have exerted a more lasting influence over modern sculpture than Anthony Caro. His work in 3-D abstraction expanded the possibilities of sculpture and he pioneered placing the work on the floor as opposed to it being raised on a plinth—reducing the barrier between art and viewer. His abstract sculptures are characterized by use of found materials of an industrial nature, usually metal.
The London born Anthony Caro (1924) studied sculpture at both the Regent Street Polytechnic and the Royal Academy Schools before working as a part-time assistant to Henry Moore from 1951-3. Heavily influenced by the sculptor David Smith, Caro began making abstract metal sculptures made of steel beams and aluminum tubing that are now synonymous with his work.
After the turn of the century Anthony Caro began producing large equestrian figures onto vaulting horses made from fragments of wood and terra-cotta. Alongside the architect Norman Foster, Caro collaborated on the design of the London Millennium Footbridge over the Thames and beside Tate Modern. He died in 2013 while working on an ambitious sculptural project to occupy three blocks of Midtown Park Avenue in New York.
Anthony Caro’s first prestigious exhibition was at the São Paulo Biennale alongside John Hoyland. He was awarded with a retrospective at the MoMA in New York in 1975 and in 1995 the retrospective Anthony Caro was held at the the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. In 2005 he exhibited at Tate Britain. In 2013 Caro exhibited at the Museo Correr in Venice in connection with the Venice Biennale. A highly-regarded teacher Caro taught at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London for over four decades.