ANTHONY CARO

A Brief Biography


1924 Born 8 March, New Malden, Surrey.

1937-42 Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey.
During vacations works in studio of the sculptor Charles Wheeler.

1942-44 Christ’s College, Cambridge; M.A. in engineering.
During vacations attends Farnham School of Art.

1944-46 Fleet Air Arm of Royal Navy.

1946-47 Regent Street Polytechnic, London: studies sculpture under Geoffrey Deeley.

1947-52 Royal Academy Schools, London.

1949 Marries the painter Sheila Girling (two sons Timothy, 1951, and Paul, 1958).

1951-53 Works as part-time assistant to Henry Moore.

1953-79 Teaches two days weekly at St. Martin’s School of Art, London.

1954 Moves to Hampstead; models figurative sculpture in clay and plaster.

1956 First one-man exhibition, at Galleria del Naviglio, Milan.

1957 First one-man show in London, at Gimpel Fils Gallery.

1959 Wins sculpture prize at Paris Biennale.
Meets Clement Greenberg in London.
Visits USA for the first time on Ford Foundation English Speaking Union Grant; meets Kenneth Noland and David Smith, also Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler and others.

1960 Returns to London; makes first abstract sculptures in steel including Twenty Four Hours.
Visits Carnac, Brittany, studies the menhirs and dolmens.

1961 First exhibits a steel sculpture, The Horse, 1961, in New London Situation, Marlborough New London Gallery, London.
First polychrome sculpture, Sculpture Seven.

1963 One-man exhibition of abstract steel sculptures at Whitechapel Gallery, London.

1963-65 Teaches at Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont.
Renews contact with Noland and Smith.

1964 First one-man exhibition in New York, at André Emmerich Gallery.

1965 Exhibits Early One Morning, 1962, in British Sculpture in the Sixties, Tate Gallery, London.

1966 Exhibits in Five Young British Artists, British Pavilion, Venice Biennale (with painters Richard Smith, Harold Cohen, Bernard Cohen and Robyn Denny).
Begins first table sculptures.

1967 Retrospective exhibition at Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo.
Acquires stock of raw materials from estate of David Smith.

1969 Retrospective exhibition at Hayward Gallery, London.
Appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Exhibits, with John Hoyland, in British Section of Tenth São Paulo Biennale.
Patrick Cunningham becomes Caro’s studio assistant.

1970 Begins making unpainted steel sculptures.

1972 Makes sculptures using roll end steel at Ripamonte Factory, Veduggio, Brianza.

1973 One-man exhibition at Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Festival, East Anglia.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquires Midday, 1960.

1974 Works at York Steel Co., Toronto, and makes large sculptures, assisted by sculptors James Wolfe and Willard Beopple.

1975 Retrospective exhibition at Museum of Modern Art, New York (which later travels to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Museum of Fine Art, Houston, and Museum of Fine Art, Boston).
Works in clay at workshop of Syracuse University, New York, organised by Margie Hughto.
Begins making sculptures in welded bronze.

1976 Presented with key to the City of New York by Mayor Abraham Beame.

1977 Exhibition of table sculptures at Tel Aviv Museum, later tours Australia, New Zealand and Germany.
Artist in residence at Emma Lake summer workshop, University of Saskatchewan.

1978 Makes first ‘writing pieces’: calligraphic sculptures in steel.
Executes commission for East Wing of the National Gallery, Washington.

1979 Receives Honorary Doctorates from East Anglia University, Norwich, and York University, Toronto.
Made Honorary Member of American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York.

1980 Makes first sculptures in lead and wood.

1981 Makes wall pieces in handmade paper, with Ken Tyler in New York.
Exhibits at Städtische Galerie in Städel, Frankfurt.
Made Honorary Fellow, Christ’s College, Cambridge.

1982 Appointed Trustee of Tate Gallery, London.
Initiates Triangle annual summer workshops for sculptors and painters at Pine Plains, New York.
Joins Council of Slade School of Art, London.

1984 One-man exhibition at Serpentine Gallery, London, which travels to Copenhagen, Düsseldorf and Barcelona. Creates first sculpture with an architectural dimension: Child’s Tower Room.

1985 Visits Greece for the first time.
Leads Sculptors’ Workshop, Maastricht.
Receives Honorary Doctorate from Cambridge University.

1986 Completes work on Scamander and Rape of the Sabines, first of sculptures inspired by Greek pediments.
Made Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Art, London.

1987 Awarded knighthood, Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Executes After Olympia, his largest one-piece sculpture.
Attends workshops in Berlin and Barcelona.

1989 Exhibits at Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul.
Sculpture workshop, Edmonton.
Visits Korea and India.
Receives Honorary Degree, Yale University, New Haven.

1990 Exhibits at Musée des Beaux Arts, Calais.
Visits Japan and starts series of paper sculptures at Nagatani’s workshop, Obama.

1991 Completes work on two large sculptures involving a dialogue with architecture: Sea Music for the quayside, Poole, Dorset, and Tower of Discovery for an exhibition of recent work at the Tate Gallery, London.

1992 Retrospective exhibition at the Trajan Market, Rome, organised by Giovanni Carandente and the British Council.
Made Honorary Member, Accademia di Belle Arte di Brera.
Receives Praemium Imperiale award for sculpture, Tokyo.
Tower of Discovery shown at the World Expo Fair, Seville.

1993-94 The British Council tours a selection of the Cascades Series of table pieces to museums in Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Cyprus and Greece.

1994 Receives Honorary Doctorate of the Royal College of Art, London.
Several exhibitions organised to celebrate the artist’s 70th birthday, including: The Trojan War, shown at the Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, London, and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield; Sculpture Through Five Decades, shown at Annely Juda Fine Art.

1994-95 Largest retrospective exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, curated by Yasuyoshi Saito with special architectural settings by Tadao Ando.
Exhibition of table sculptures organised by Kettle’s Yard Gallery, Cambridge University, tours to Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, and Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield.
The Henry Moore Sculpture Trust commissions a temporary sculpture installation for the Henry Moore Studio at Dean Clough, Halifax: Halifax Steps - Ziggurats and Spirals.

1996 Receives Diploma Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Charles de Gaulle, Lille and Honorary Degree, Durham University.
Goodwood Steps displayed at the Hat Hill Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood.

1996-97 The Trojan War sculptures are shown in Greece at Thessaloniki and at the National Gallery, Athens.
With the architect Sir Norman Foster and the engineer Chris Wise, wins the competition for a new footbridge spanning the Thames from
St. Paul’s to the new Tate Gallery of Modern Art
at Bankside, London. Completed in 2000, the
bridge is known as the ‘Millennium Bridge’.

1998 Caro - Sculpture From Painting shown at the National Gallery, London, the first occasion a contemporary sculptor has been invited to exhibit there.
Receives Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, International Sculpture Centre, Washington DC, and Honorary Fine Arts Degree, Florida International University.

1999 Exhibits The Last Judgement, 1995-99, a twenty five part sculpture that has been compared to Picasso’s Guernica, at the 48th Venice Biennale.

2000 Awarded OM.
Exhibition at Venice Design Gallery, Venice of works from the Concerto series (1999/2000) inspired by music.
Three from the series of seven Duccio Variations in different materials are included in the Encounters exhibition at the National Gallery, London.
The Last Judgement is the first show in the new wing of the Museo des Bellas Artes, Bilbao.

2001 All seven Duccio Variations exhibited together at Marlborough Gallery, New York, with Gold Blocks and Concerto pieces; a selection of the works toured to Marlborough Gallery, Santiago.
The Last Judgement exhibited at the Johanniter Kirche, Schwäbisch Hall, Germany to coincide with the opening of the new Kunsthalle Würth.
Exhibition of large architectural inspired works opens new gallery space at Longside, Yorkshire Sculpture Park

2002 Exhibitions at Galería 2004 ‘Anthony Caro – The Barbarians’, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Madrid, Galleria Lawrence Rubin, Milan and Galería Altair, Palma de Mallorca
Anthony Caro - L'évolution d'un sculpteur exhibition at Château-Musée de Dieppe, France.
AnthonyCaro: Drawing in Space, a major retrospective displaying sculptures from the 1960s to the present day is shown at the La Pedrera building in Barcelona, one of the famous buildings designed by Gaudi. This exhibition is organised by the Caixa Catalunya who have also created a new exhibition space next to La Pedrera where the Last Judgement is exhibited at the same time.

2003 Anthony Caro – escultures I obra sobre paper, Galeria Joan Prats – Artgrafic, Barcelona
The Barbarians, Europa and the Bull and Paper Book Sculptures, Annely Juda Fine Art, London

2004 Anthony Caro – The Barbarians, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul

2005 Anthony Caro - Retrospective, Tate Britain, London

Work in Public Collections
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of North Carolina, Newbarn
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
The Arts Council of Great Britain
Ball State University, Indiana
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
Staatsgemäldesammlung, Munich
City of Barcelona
Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts
The British Council, London
des Beaux-Arts, Calais
Caracas Museum, Venezuela
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg
Christian Science Center, Boston
Christ's College, Cambridge
Smart Museum, University of Chicago
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Comino Foundation, USA
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas
Institute of Arts, Michigan
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio
Duke University Art Gallery, Durham, N. Carolina
Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton Alberta
Everson Museum, Syracuse
Felton Bequest, Melbourne
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Folkwang Museum, Essen
Friends of Johannesburg Art Gallery
FukuokaCity Museum of Art, Japan
Glasgow Museum of Modern Art
Government Art Collection, London
Hakone Open Air Museum, Tokyo
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Ho-am Art Museum, Seoul
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Lillie & Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, Texas
de Nagy Watson Gallery, Houston, Texas
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Joan Miro Foundation, Barcelona
Johannesburg Art Gallery
Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld
Kunsthalle Bielefeld
Kunsthalle Hamburg
Kunsthalle Mannheim
Kunsthaus, Zürich
Kunstmuseum Hanover (Sammlung Sprengel)
Kunstsammlung der Ruhr-Universität, Bochum
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Leeds City Council
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas
Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Calais
Museum Ernst-Gerhard, Saarbrücken
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, Shiga
Museum of Modern Art Toyama, Toyama City
Museum Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen
Museum Würth, Künzelsau
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
National Museum of Art, Osaka
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
Peterborough Development Corporation
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
Phillips Collection, Washington DC.
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York
Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo
Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Portugal (Berardo Collection)
Skulpturenmuseum Albertinum, Dresden
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Sondra & Marvin Smalley Sculpture Garden, The Univerity of Judaism, Los Angeles
City of St. Louis Museum, Missouri
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Storm King Art Centre, Mountainville, New York
Syracuse University, New York
Tate Gallery, London
Tel Aviv Museum, Israel
Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio
UCLA Art Council, Los Angeles, California
Ulster Museum, Belfast
University of Alberta, Edmonton
University of California, Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, Los Angeles
University of East Anglia, Norwich
Collection du Fonds Departmental d’Art Contemporain du Val de Marne
Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal
Wakayama Prefectural Museum, Japan
Wakefield Museum and Art Gallery
Wakita Museum of Art, Japan
Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul
Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne
West London College, London
Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg
Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum/Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz, Austria
Wolfson College, Oxford
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
York University of Fine Art, Toronto, Ontario