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.
Anthony Caro believed sculpture that was to be exhibited outdoors should be made outdoors. Pictured: After Emma, 1977/1982, on view at Hepworth Wakefield.
Double Shot, 1987/1993, on view at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
First National, 1964, on view at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Paris Green, 1966.
Palanquin, 1987–91, on view at Hepworth Wakefield. Courtesy of Barford Sculptures Ltd
Month of May, 1963.
End of Time, 2013, on view at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Autumn Rhapsody, 2011–12.
Terminus, 2013. Courtesy of Barford Sculptures Ltd
Left: Double Flats, 1974, made in rusted and varnished steel. Right: Aurora, 2000–03, installation on view outside Leeds Art Gallery and the Henry Moore Institute
Child’s Tower Room, 1983/1984, on view at Hepworth Wakefield.
ADDRESS
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the cloudsAt 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Kitchen Trends 2026: luminosity, colour, and unexpected materialityThese are kitchen trends shaping interior design in 2026, from collaborative kitchens to warm luminosity
-
A gallery in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales showcases work inspired by natureThorns Gallery opens in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, with founders Jonathan Reed and Graeme Black aiming to showcase artworks inspired by the natural world
-
What is recycling good for, asks Mika Rottenberg at Hauser & Wirth MenorcaUS-based artist Mika Rottenberg rethinks the possibilities of rubbish in a colourful exhibition, spanning films, drawings and eerily anthropomorphic lamps
-
San Francisco’s controversial monument, the Vaillancourt Fountain, could be facing demolitionThe brutalist fountain is conspicuously absent from renders showing a redeveloped Embarcadero Plaza and people are unhappy about it, including the structure’s 95-year-old designer
-
See the fruits of Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely's creative and romantic union at Hauser & Wirth SomersetAn intimate exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset explores three decades of a creative partnership
-
Technology, art and sculptures of fog: LUMA Arles kicks off the 2025/26 seasonThree different exhibitions at LUMA Arles, in France, delve into history in a celebration of all mediums; Amy Serafin went to explore
-
Inside Yinka Shonibare's first major show in AfricaBritish-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare is showing 15 years of work, from quilts to sculptures, at Fondation H in Madagascar
-
Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary artAs Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
-
Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s ParkTwenty-two international artists turn the English gardens into a dream-like landscape and remind us of our inextricable connection to the natural world
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhoodTschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
