Tony Thoughts Tony Cragg: Making Thoughts Visible

Speaking of contemporary sculpture, if a representative needs to be selected in the UK, then 63-year-old Tony Cragg will undoubtedly be the first choice. Born in Liverpool, England, in 1949, he won the Turner Prize, Britain's most important artist award, in 1988, and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale that year. Known as the most famous British sculptor after Henry Moore, he is also one of the greatest contemporary British artists.

Squeezing, twisting, stretching, and denting are the most direct visual experiences of Tony Cragg’s sculptures. The ingenuity in the use of materials is the most striking feature throughout Tony's entire artistic career. Tony mixed inspiration from various fields such as neurology, biology, physics, chemistry and other fields, and applied it to various materials such as urban garbage, discarded plastics, synthetic materials, bronze and so on. Over the decades, he has established his own His position in the contemporary art world has also resulted in a series of stunning works.

Now, Tony has come to China, and "Tony Cragg: Sculpture and Painting Exhibition" has landed at Shanghai Zendai Himalayas Art Museum.

On September 7, Tony Cragg came to Shanghai to unveil his first solo exhibition in Shanghai. Wearing a clean white shirt, a soft black jacket, and soft eyes behind rimless glasses, Eliot, chief curator of the National Gallery of Modern Art Scotland, introduced the honors Tony had received at the opening ceremony. Sitting aside, he was being The person he was talking about had almost no expression changes, and he only spoke a few words calmly. However, Tony, who had a calm face, would occasionally make one or two cold jokes - this leading figure in the British contemporary art world really has no " He is as wild and uninhibited as an artist should be, but more like an ordinary professor in a university. In fact, Tony has indeed been the director of the Art Academy in Dusseldorf, Germany. The elegant scholar's temperament and the artist's restrained publicity have reached a subtle harmony in Tony.

The works in this exhibition are all personally selected by Tony Cragg, including his major works in the past 15 years*** totaling 177 pieces/group, including about 50 pieces/group of sculptures, and more than 100 works on paper. The exhibition is divided into two series: "Early Forms" and "Rational Things". According to the context of the exhibition, the audience can clearly understand the artistic process of Tony Cragg, which in turn reflects the dynamic and evolving process of contemporary sculpture in Britain from the 1980s to the present.

A variety of alternative materials

An artist actually calls himself a "materialist"? In this regard, Tony explained with a smile that his "materialist" does not mean pursuing material life, but means being very persistent in creating materials. At this level, it can also be explained that Tony is a 'materialist'.

Tony Cragg, who was born in a family of electrical engineers, became a natural rubber experimenter at the age of 17 As a laboratory assistant, in the scientific world of atoms and sub-atoms, he gradually developed an unusual sensitivity to various materials, which he gradually began to use in the creation of sculptures.

"Potato Head". This work was created when Tony was 21 years old. It was not originally included in the exhibition, but it is extremely precious because it reflects Tony's earliest artistic ideas. For many years, Tony has thought that this photographic work had been lost. But before traveling to China for the exhibition, I unexpectedly found this "lost and found" memory of youth in the studio, so I happily added it to the exhibition.

A potato with plastic facial features and features added to it. A hat, posed in 20 different shapes, was finally fixed in the photo. This piece of "Potato Head" was deeply influenced by the pop art that was the most popular in the United States in the 1970s. Pop art reflected the young generation that grew up after the war. In his works, it is not difficult to see Tony's imitation of the "Marilyn Monroe" series by the pop art master Andy Warhol. This was Tony's first step in using plastic as a material for artistic creation.

At that time, Arte Povera, which originated in Italy, was popular in the European art world, which used common or discarded materials to create art. Tony's small experiment with plastic eyes, ears, mouth, and nose in "Potato Head" later developed into a series of his plastic works. Tony uses discarded plastics of various colors washed up on river banks and creates works on the walls and floors. However, he did not disappear among the large number of people who devoted themselves to Arte Povera. Instead, he developed a unique "Krag style", which is closely related to his growing environment and persistence in materials and sculptural forms.

Tony's early works mainly used recycled waste as raw materials. Among the exhibits this time are "Cathedral" and "Absolute Omnivore" that he created in the 1980s. "Cathedral" brought Tony, who was less than 40 years old, one of the most important awards in his life in 1988: the Turner Prize. Several brightly colored cones are piled up to resemble a church. The most outstanding thing about "Cathedral" is that there is no adhesive between each part, and the work is formed purely by gravity. Through meticulous and rigorous stacking, Tony stacks layers of materials into various stacked abstract shapes, making the work quiet and dynamic, without the sticky and rigid feeling of ordinary buildings. Upon closer inspection, viewers can discover that these abstract and beautiful sculptures are made of urban garbage, discarded plastic, metal, glass, etc. Cragg allows originally dull materials to be created into completely new forms. This is a height that can only be achieved by a genius's imagination coupled with an artistic understanding of the fusion between the organic and the inorganic.

In addition to using various existing materials such as metal, synthetic materials, wood, glass, and discarded bottles to express artistic works, Tony is also almost demanding in his choice of pigments. One of the largest exhibits in this exhibition, "Declination", is made of bronze, but its surface is bright yellow. According to Tony's agent Marian, when Tony was living in Germany, he cooperated with some local pigment factories and research and development centers, racked his brains and conducted protracted experiments, and finally developed a paint that can be covered with bronze and last forever. Faded paint. The bright candy yellow is often associated with children, innocent and vulnerable, but underneath the seemingly fragile surface, the interior of this work is made of hard bronze. This contrast also contains Tony’s understanding of the surface and the interior. Thoughts on the two sides of the story.

In the "Early Forms" series, Tony has a sculpture called "Absolute Omnivore", which is also a portrayal of Tony himself. "In the field of sculpture, I am an omnivore myself." Tony believes that this is not only about his omnivorous use of materials, but also about his understanding of neurology, biology, pathology, psychology and other disciplines in the field of sculpture. Being inclusive changes people's inherent perception of objects. "Not only plastic waste, but even the DNA in the human body can be made into sculptures." Tony said. His unique and penetrating vision for materials has largely contributed to Tony Hui's outstanding artistic achievements. In January 2011, Tony became the first living artist to have a solo exhibition at the Louvre.

Breathing Sculpture

Tony is good at adding the finishing touch to the entire sculpture by making small changes to some details. The power of life is constantly flowing between objects. These sculptures with different materials and abstract shapes have breath and soul in Tony's hands. Almost all of Tony's sculptures are in abstract style, but Tony, a "materialist", has brought the unknown sense of life to sculptures to an unprecedented level.

"Secretions" in the "Rational Things" series is placed in the middle of a small exhibition hall, but it attracts the most visitors to stop and watch. This work, whose surface is entirely made of dice, is said to have used nearly 190,000 dice, which is breathtaking. Agent Ma Li'an said: "Dice are first related to luck, which coincides with the nature of chance. The dice on the surface of the work are like the pores of the human body. Through the dice, the human skin can breathe smoothly; when sweating, sweat It will steam out little by little through the pores, and the overall upward shape of the work is very similar to the rising state of water vapor. ”