TONY CRAGG (United Kingdom, 1949).
"Form Code (Blue)", 2006.
Two-sided woven rug with New Zealand wool.
Measurements: 240 x 340 cm.
Tony Cragg's sculptures have known different exploratory phases, from an early post-minimalist stage to the most recent organic inquiries, of which this tapestry with its complex meanders is a part. Cragg resignifies traditional and everyday materials through a process of renewal. He is interested in stripping objects of all fetishistic notions, transfiguring their relationship to spaces and poeticizing their uses. Tony Cragg's role in the renewal of the sculptural medium in the second half of the last century is unquestionable. In recent years, he has been the subject of major retrospective exhibitions, such as the one held at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran, the MUDAM in Luxembourg and the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal.
Tony Cragg trained at the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design, then furthered his studies at the Wimbledon School of Art (1969-73). He finally completed his training at the Royal College of Art (1973-77). In 1977 he left his native country and settled in the German town of Wuppertal, where he has lived and worked ever since. In 1988 he won the Turner Prize, in 2001 the CBE, in 2002 the Piepenbrock Prize for sculpture and in 2007 the Praemium Imperiale. In 2008 he opened a sculpture park in Wuppertal. He has exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, and is represented at the Tate Gallery and the Royal Academy in London, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., the MoMA in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh, the Cass Sculpture Foundation in Goodwood (UK), the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin, the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, the Harvard University Museum, the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Germany, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Fort Worth Museum of Art in Texas, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Trento, the Palazzo del Stelline in Milan and the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, among others.