CARO, SIR ANTHONY

CARO, SIR ANTHONY (1924– ), British sculptor. Caro, a member of an old English Sephardi family, was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey and educated at Cambridge. He originally studied engineering, but after service in World War ii studied art. From 1951 to 1953 he was assistant to Henry Moore. He became prominent as a teacher as well as a sculptor, both at St. Martin's School of Art in London and at Bennington College, Vermont, United States. Caro's earliest work, in clay and bronze, concentrated on the female form in a somewhat brutal, expressionist, emotional style. In 1960, following a visit to the United States, he dramatically changed his style to an uncompromisingly abstract one, making use of sheet metal, iron girders, and ready-made engineering parts. In 1963, when his large steel and aluminum structures were shown at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, Caro was acclaimed as a major artist. He subsequently represented Britain at the Biennales in Venice (1966) and São Paulo, Brazil (1969). Regarded as one of the greatest contemporary sculptors, Caro was awarded a knighthood in 1987 and was made a member of the Order of Merit (om) in 2000.

bibliography:

Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, Anthony Caro: Sculpture 1960–1963 (1963); B. Robertson and J. Russell, Private View (1965). add. bibliography: K. Wilkin, Caro (1991), I. Barker, Anthony Caro: Quest For the New Sculpture (2004); J. Bryant, Anthony Caro: A Life in Sculpture (2004).

[Charles Samuel Spencer /

William D. Rubinstein (2^nd ed.)]