Yorkshire takeover: Anthony Caro’s sculptures celebrated across Leeds and Wakefield
Anthony Caro believed that sculpture that was exhibited outdoors should be made outdoors. The late British artist, who died in 2013, also thought works should hang from ceilings, balance on table edges and fill awkward corners. For him, the space around a work was as important as the work itself.
This summer, Caro is celebrated across Yorkshire with exhibitions at the Hepworth Wakefield and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and seminars at the Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Art Gallery. Organised with the help of his studio and wife – who died earlier this year – the programme features 80 works, spanning 60 years of his career.
Hepworth Wakefield explores the role of architecture in Caro's work through 40 of these. Starting with his seminal painted steel sculptures and Table Pieces from the 1960s, it moves through the cage-like series made outdoors at the Emma Lake workshop in Canada, 1977, and culminates with steel, wood and Perspex works from 2013.
In 1987, Caro collaborated with Frank Gehry to design a 'Sculpture Village' featuring constructions the pair coined as 'Sculpitecture'. On completing the Millennium Bridge with Norman Foster in 2000, Caro declared that, 'Architecture has come to play an important part in my thinking during the past ten or 15 years, but when I look back I think it was always there.'
The sculptor had a long history of working in Yorkshire, especially at the Sculpture Park, which was an early supporter of his practice. Rarely-seen sketches and figurative works are on show at the park's Longside Gallery while eight of his never-before-seen Flats, rendered in rusted and varnished steel in the 1970s, shimmer under the dappled shade of giant horse chestnut trees. In the main building, the 18th-century Bretton Hall where Henry Moore permanently takes centre stage, a series of Caro's models are also on display.
That the two great British sculptors are on show under the same roof is fitting. Caro was Moore's studio assistant from 1951–1953 and they remained friendly (and sometimes not-so-friendly) rivals until Moore's death in 1986.
ADDRESS
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Emma O'Kelly is a contributing editor at Wallpaper*. She joined the magazine on issue 4 as news editor and since since then has worked in full and part time roles across many editorial departments. She is a freelance journalist based in London and works for a range of titles from Condé Nast Traveller to The Telegraph. She is currently working on a book about Scandinavian sauna culture and is renovating a mid century house in the Italian Lakes.
-
A new limited-edition Rhodes piano and Gibson doubleneck guitar aim for the stars
The new Rhodes Mk8 Earth Edition piano and Gibson Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Doubleneck guitar revisit classic instruments at a price
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
The new interior design trends we spotted at Salone del Mobile 2024
These are the interior design trends to look out for in 2024 and beyond, from soft upholstery to conversation pits and low dining
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Tiffany & Co nods to its theatrical history with a surreal new campaign
Tiffany & Co campaign ‘With Love, Since 1837’ sees Dan Tobin Smith and set designer Rachel Thomas create an offbeat set
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Gerhard Richter unveils new sculpture at Serpentine South
Gerhard Richter revisits themes of pattern and repetition in ‘Strip-Tower’ at London’s Serpentine South
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Peter Blake’s sculptures spark joy at Waddington Custot in London
‘Peter Blake: Sculpture and Other Matters’, at London's Waddington Custot, spans six decades of the artist's career
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Oozing, squidgy, erupting forms come alive at Hayward Gallery
‘When Forms Come Alive: Sixty Years of Restless Sculpture’ at Hayward Gallery, London, is a group show full of twists and turns
By Hannah Silver Published
-
New glass sculpture creates a verdant wonderland at Apple’s Cupertino HQ
‘Mirage’ at Apple Park is the work of Zeller & Moye and artist Katie Paterson, a shimmering array of glass columns that snakes through the grounds of the company’s monumental HQ
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Man Ray’s sculptures go on show in New York
‘Man Ray: Other Objects’ opens at Luxembourg + Co, New York, revealing their author’s ‘artistic revolution’
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The best London art exhibitions to see now
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Erwin Wurm’s pop-coloured fantasy land at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
In Erwin Wurm’s first UK museum show, ‘Trap of the Truth’, the artist transforms Yorkshire Sculpture Park into a slightly warped wonderland (10 June 2023 – 28 April 2024)
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro transforms Fendi’s Rome HQ into a theatre of myth and magic
Fendi’s Roman HQ sets the scene for ‘Il Grande Teatro delle Civiltà’ a major show by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, who has also created a one-off edition of the house’s iconic Peekaboo bag. Read more in the July 2023 Issue of Wallpaper*, on newsstands 8 June
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published