Tony Cragg

Tony Cragg is one of the world’s foremost sculptors. Constantly pushing to find new relations between people and the material world, there is no limit to the materials he might use, as there are no limits to the ideas or forms he might conceive. His early, stacked works present a taxonomical understanding of the world, and he has said that he sees manmade objects as “fossilized keys to a past time which is our present”. So too, the floor and wall arrangements of objects that he started making in the 1980s blur the line between manmade and natural landscapes: they create an outline of something familiar, where the contributing parts relate to the whole. Cragg understands sculpture as a study of how material and material forms affect and form our ideas and emotions. This is exemplified in the way in which Cragg has worked and reworked two broad bodies of work he calls Early Forms and Rational Beings. The Early Forms explore the possibilities of sculpturally reforming familiar objects such as containers into new and unfamiliar forms producing new emotional responses, relationships and meanings. Rational Beings examine the relationship between two apparently different aesthetic descriptions of the world; the rational, mathematically based formal constructions that go to build up the most complicated of organic forms that we respond to emotionally. The human figure being the prime example of something that looks ultimately organic eliciting emotional responses, while being fundamentally an extremely complicated geometric composition of molecules, cells, organs and processes. His work does not imitate nature and what we look like, rather it concerns itself with why we look like we do and why we are as we are.

Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool, UK in 1949 and has lived and worked in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977. He studied at the Wimbledon School of Art, London (1969-1973) and at the Royal College of Art, London, (1973-1977). He taught at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany (1978-2001) and at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, Germany (2001-2006). He was the director of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany from 2009 to 2013. He held the Chaire de Création Artisque from 2013 to 2014 at the Collége de France in Paris, France. At the 43rd Venice Biennale in 1988 he represented Britain and was awarded the Turner Prize at the Tate Gallery, London, UK in the same year. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1994; In 2002 he was awarded Commander of the British Empire (CBE). He received the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture, Tokyo, Japan (2007); was awarded the 1st Class Order of Merit of Federal Republic of Germany (2012) and was made Knight Bachelor in 2016.

Among his many major solo shows Cragg has exhibited extensively in museums worldwide including: Museo Nazionale Romano Terme di Diocleziano, Rome, Italy (2024); Castle Howard, York, UK (2024); Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Germany (2024); Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon, Portugal (2023); Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway (2023); Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2023); Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria (2022); Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany (2021+2007); Houghton Hall, Norfolk, UK (2021); Museo Brasileiro da Escultura e EcologiaI, São Paulo, Brazil (2019); Boboli Gardens, Florence, Italy (2019); Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey (2018); Teheran Museum of Contemporary Art, Theran, Iran (2017); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefeld, UK (2017); Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba, Havana, Cuba (2017); Le Musée d’Art Contemporain du Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2017); Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany (2017); Muzeum Wspólczesne Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland (2017); The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2016); Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany (2016); Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece (2015); Gothenburg International Sculpture Exhibition, Gothenburg, Sweden (2015); Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York, USA (2014); Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan (2014); Musée d’art modern et contemporian de Saint-Étienne, Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, France (2013); National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan (2013); CAFA Art Museum in Beijing, Museum of Contemporay Art Chengdu, Shanghai Himalayas Art Museum, Shanghai China (2012); The Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (2011); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX, USA (2011); Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (2011); Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Germany (2009); Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria (2009); Museum Unteres Belvedere, Vienna, Austria (2008); Museo de Arte de Lima-MALI, Peru (2007); Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2006); The Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia (2005); Neues Museum Nürnberg, Germany (2005); Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2004); Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany, (2003); MACRO Museo D’Arte Contemporanea, Roma, Italy (2003); Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome, Italy (2003); Tate Gallery, Liverpool, UK (2000); Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (1999); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK (1997 + 1981); Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (1997); Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota/Aichi, Japan (1997); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (1995); Centre Georges Pomipidou, Paris, France (1996); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (1993 + 1991); Contemporary Arts Houston Museum, Houston, TX, USA (1991); Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA, USA (1990); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany (1989); Tate Gallery, London, UK (1989); Hayward Gallery, London, UK (1987); Documenta, Kassel, Germany (1987 + 1982); The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, USA (1986); Kröller-Müller Museum, Oterlo, The Netherlands (1982).

Recent, current and forthcoming projects

'Line of Thought', Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Wuppertal, Germany (Until 1 January 2026)

Skulpturengarten Spanischer Turm, Darmstadt, Germany (Until 26 October 2025)

‘Infinite forme e bellissime’ Terme di Diocleziano, The Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy (9 November 2024 - 4 May 2025)

Tony Cragg
Masks

2021
Stone 90 x 70 x 30 cm 35 3/8 x 27 1/2 x 11 3/4 in

Tony Cragg
Untitled

2020
Bronze 55 x 32 x 26 cm 21 5/8 x 12 1/2 x 10 1/8 in

Tony Cragg
Senders

2019
Bronze 120 x 58 x 53 cm 47 1/8 x 22 3/4 x 20 3/4 in

Tony Cragg
Senders

2019
Bronze 80 x 42 x 31 cm / 31 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 12 1/8 in

Tony Cragg
In Frequencies

2019
Bronze 76 x 41 x 76 cm / 29 7/8 x 16 1/8 x 29 7/8 in

Tony Cragg
Pair

2018
Bronze 100 x 46 x 38 cm 39 1/4 x 18 x 14 7/8 in

Tony Cragg
Stack

2018
Wood 280 x 188 x 149 cm / 110 1/8 x 74 x 58 5/8 in

Tony Cragg
Gate

2017
Stainless steel 100 x 105 x 95 cm / 39 1/4 x 41 1/4 x 37 3/8 in

Tony Cragg
Sail

2016
Onyx 220 x 114 x 34 cm / 86 5/8 x 44 7/8 x 13 3/8 in

Tony Cragg
Hedge

2016
Steel 103 x 100 x 60 cm / 40 1/2 x 39 3/8 x 23 5/8 in

Tony Cragg
Skull

2016
Bronze 150 x 104 x 68 cm / 59 x 41 x 26 6/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Spring

2015
Wood 280 x 245 x 74 cm / 110 1/4 x 96 1/2 x 29 1/8 in

Tony Cragg
We

2015
Bronze 190 x 90 x 90 cm / 74 3/4 x 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Industrial Nature

2015
Aluminium 220 x 366 x 190 cm / 86 5/8 x 144 1/8 x 74 3/4 in

Tony Cragg
Over The Earth

2014
Bronze 175 x 76 x 285 cm / 69 x 30 x 112 1/4 in.

Tony Cragg
Early Form

2014
Bronze 72 x 64 x 62 cm / 28 3/8 x 25 1/4 x 24 3/8 in

Tony Cragg
Elliptical column

2013
Stainless steel 330 x 95 x 85 cm / 130 x 37 1/2 x 33 1/2 in.

Tony Cragg
After We've Gone

2014
Bronze 210 x 107 x 96 cm / 82 5/8 x 42 x 37 7/8 in

Tony Cragg
Versus

2012
Bronze 150 x 160 x 55 cm 59 1/16 x 63 x 21 5/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Group

2012
Bronze 120 x 112 x 90 cm 47 1/4 x 44 1/16 x 35 7/16 in.

Tony Cragg
It is, It isn’t

2011
Cast iron 74 x 34 x 36 cm 29 1/8 X 13 3/8 x 14 3/16 in.

Tony Cragg
It is, It isn’t

2011
Cast iron 74 x 34 x 36 cm 29 1/8 X 13 3/8 x 14 3/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Ever after

2010
Bronze 356 x 138 x 100 cm 140 3/16 X 54 5/16 39 3/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Companions

2008
Fibreglass 278 x 205 x 294 cm 109 7/16 x 80 11/16 x 115 3/4 in.

Tony Cragg
Companions

2008
Fibreglass 278 x 205 x 294 cm 109 7/16 x 80 11/16 x 115 3/4 in.

Tony Cragg
Elbow

2010
Wood 250 x 102 x 429 cm 98 7/16 x 40 3/16 x 168 7/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Runner

2009
Bronze 140 x 130 x 72 cm 55 1/8 x 51 3/16 x 28 3/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Hamlet

2009
Wood 386 x 130 x 100 cm 152 x 51 3/16 x 39 3/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Hamlet

2009
Wood 386 x 130 x 100 cm 152 x 51 3/16 x 39 3/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Luke

2008
Bronze 360 x 192 x 180 cm 141 3/4 x 75 9/16 x 70 7/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Wild Relatives

2006
Wood 185 x 135 x 135 cm 72 13/16 x 53 1/8 x 53 1/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Relatives

2004
Bronze 68 x 66 x 58 cm 26 3/4 x 26 x 22 13/16 in.

Tony Cragg
On a Roll

2003
Bronze 152 x 95 x 95 cm 59 13/16 x 37 3/8 x 37 3/8 in.

Tony Cragg
In Mind

2002
Bronze 105 x 80 x 57 cm 41 5/16 x 31 1/2 x 22 7/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Ferryman

2001
Bronze 385 x 190 x 120cm 151 9/16 x 74 13/16 x 47 1/4 in.

Tony Cragg
One way or another

2001
Stone (Giallo Siena Chiaro, Italian marble) 260 x 70 x 70 cm 102 3/8 x 27 9/16 x 27 9/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Slice

2000
Bronze and paint 120 x 120 x 110 cm 47 1/4 x 17 1/4 x 43 5/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Rod

2000
Bronze 60 x 60 x 230 cm 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 x 90 9/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Cumulus

1998
Glass 113 x 76 x 48 cm 44 1/2 x 29 15/16 x 18 7/8 in.

Tony Cragg
Blood Sugar

1992-96
Glass 64 x 187 x 85 cm 25 3/16 x 73 5/8 x 33 7/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Spyrogyra

1992-95
Sandblasted glass and steel 240 x 500 x 290 cm 94 1/2 x 196 7/8 x 114 3/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Early Forms

1993
Bronze 75 x 110 x 225 cm 29 1/2 x 43 5/16 x 88 9/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Early Forms

1993
Bronze 75 x 110 x 225 cm 29 1/2 x 43 5/16 x 88 9/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Minster

1987
Rubber, stone, wood, metal Dimensions variable

Tony Cragg
Tools

1986
Sandstone 100 x 320 x 350 cm 39 3/8 x 126 x 137 13/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Welsh Landscape

1985
Mixed media Dimensions variable

Tony Cragg
Still Life: Belongings

1985
Mixed media 172 x 170 x 270 cm 67 3/4 x 66 15/16 x 106 5/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Large Window

1982
Found wood fragments 252 x 198 cm 99 3/16 x 77 15/16 in.

Tony Cragg
Leaf

1981
Found plastic objects Installed: 170.2 x 132.1 cm Installed: 67 x 52 in.

Tony Cragg
New Stones - Newton's Tones

1978
Plastic 330 x 235 cm 90 9/16 x 92 1/2 in.

Tony Cragg
Stack

1975
Mixed media 200 x 200 x 200 cm 78 3/4 x 78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in.

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Tony Cragg

Recent, current and forthcoming projects

Museum Exhibitions

‘Tony Cragg: Line of Thought’ at the Waldfrieden Sculpture Park, Wuppertal, Germany

Exhibitions