Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Practitioner research: Anthony Cragg


Anthony Cragg

Tony Cragg is a sculptor, many of his early works are made with found household and construction materials. He started his work in the UK where he studied art at on the foundation course at the Gloucestershire College of art and design, then at the Wimbledon school of art. He was taught by Roger Ackling who introduced him to the sculptors Richard Long and Bill Woodrow. After this he completed his studies at Royal College of art where he was a contemporary of Richard Wentworth.

After completing his studies he moved out of Britain to Wuppertal in Germany where he is currently living and working. Cragg also has a studio on the island of Tjorrn off the west coast of Sweden. During the 1970s he made sculptures using simple techniques such as stacking, splitting, and crushing. In 1978 he collected discarded plastic fragments and arranged them into colour categories. The first work of this kind was called 'New Stones-Newton’s Tones'. Shortly after this he made works on the floor and wall reliefs, which formed images. One of these works, Britain Seen From the North (1981), features the shape of the island of Great Britain on the wall, oriented so that north is to the left. To the left of the island is the figure of a man, apparently Cragg himself, looking at the country from the position of an outsider. The whole piece is made from broken pieces of found rubbish and is often interpreted as commenting on the economic difficulties Britain was going through at that time, which had a particular effect on the north.

I chose to write about Tony Cragg because he works with found objects and recyclable materials that have no use anymore to produce amazing sculptures and wall pieces. I chose him because these are the similarities between his work and the work I’m doing as I’m working with recycled scrap to produce art and also found objects.

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