---

Footnotes

• LITERATURE:
  Texts by Dieter Blume, Lawrence Alloway, Michael Fried, Peter Fuller, Tim Hilton and Peter Murray, The complete catalogue of all the sculptor's works 1942-2005, cat.no.B1127
  
  It was in 1960 that Caro made the leap from figurative sculpture to abstraction. Everything Caro conceived after this date has been defined by an unparalleled level of experimentation and self-critique. Caro is an artist who constantly pushes at the boundaries of the established and the expected, challenging the terms in which sculpture is assessed and perceived. His work is highly conceptual and fundamentally intellectual and it is his enormous intellectual rigour that underpins works such as Lagoon. Through a sculpture such as Lagoon, it is easy to see how in the recent Tate retrospective, Caro was described as "Britain's most celebrated living sculptor, an artist of the highest international renown, and a figure of unquestionable significance in the history of modern Western art" (Stephen Deuchar, Director, Tate Britain, in the forward to the 2005 exhibition catalogue).
  
  As has been stated, Caro's consistent exploration of the terms in which sculpture is realised and perceived has been enormously influential on the direction of sculpture in the 20th Century. As Deuchar has put it, the artist 'effectively reinvented the language of the medium itself.' (Loc.Cit.) Indeed, by the time that Lagoon was conceived, Caro had already invented a new sculptural syntax and redefined the relationship of sculpture to the world. Lagoon addresses issues of space, mass, scale, plane and materiality that lie at the heart of Caro's art.
  
  This redefinition of the language of sculpture began in 1959, the year in which Caro eliminated the plinth. Woman's Body (1959, Destroyed), a figurative work, was the first sculpture by Caro to occupy the space of the so-called 'real' world. The boundaries of art and life are fused in this sculpture as the space of the observer is invaded by the presence of the life-size moulded bronze figure which is seated on a bench with feet dangling on the ground. In bringing the feet of the sculpture in contact with the ground Caro eliminated the barrier between viewer and sculpture as in this work for the first time the two were to occupy the same space. This innovation for which Caro is famed preceded the possibly more dramatic move into abstraction the following year.
  
  It is important to understand these events in 1959 and 1960 as they underpinned and shaped the art of Caro's future years. By removing the plinth and embracing non-representational means of expression Caro had found the sculptural language that was to be the text for his art. One of the artist's main influences at the time was the American artist Kenneth Noland, who Caro encountered on his visit to the USA at the end of 1959. Noland's clean abstract paintings were a revelation, and prompted Caro to explore the equivalent in sculpture. Another key influence on Caro at this time, and a long-term mentor for the artist, was the American critic and leading advocate of Formalism, Clement Greenberg. The result of these interactions was the sculpture Twenty Four Hours (1960, Tate). This pared down sculpture seems to rely on interlocking planes of space much in the same way as abstract painting. By borrowing from the language of painting, Caro created a work that redefined the direction of sculpture.
  
  Caro's driving impulse in his art has been towards finding a sculptural language that is truly abstract, without reference to anything else but itself. Part of this quest was to bring sculpture down to the ground onto a level where it becomes an independent structure, to be understood on its own terms, and in this way entirely self-referential. One result of this grounding of sculpture is the emphasis on horizontality, which soon became a key feature of Caro's art, as can be seen in Lagoon. The use, in this work, of what could be perceived as 'anti-aesthetic' rusting and raw materials subverts expectation and alerts the viewer to the very materiality of the sculpture. The contrast Caro has set up between the rusted and polished steel forces a dialogue between materiality and surface.
  
  Lagoon is typical of Caro's work in the 1970s, which is defined by its magnitude when compared to his earlier work. The prominent scale and mass of this work gives it a certain gravitas. Caro's '70s sculptures have been considered the 'prose' to the 'poetry' of the previous decade. It was during this decade that Caro created 37 sculptures, which became known as the 'Flat' series due to their reliance on flattened steel for their form. Lagoon relates very closely to these works in its shared concerns with flatness. The interlocking plates of rusted and polished steel highlight the different planes of space usually found so overtly in abstract painting. Lagoon's sophisticated interaction with space is typical of Caro. This sculpture literally invades the space around it, declaring its presence to the world and onlooker. It is essentially an assertive work, achieved through the confident relationships Caro sets up between space and plane, scale and mass. Structurally, Lagoon raids not only the language of painting but also that of architecture. By drawing on these other disciplines, Caro enhances his own.
  
  The non-referential aspect of Caro's art is extremely important, and while Lagoon may relate to these other disciplines it is important that it exists purely on its own terms without reference to anything identifiable. Indeed, it is 'the very abstractedness of the sculpture, and its essentially non-functional nature [that] define it as art – a purely aesthetic object that is also a real thing, but which nevertheless stands at a remove from other things within the world. Its purpose is purely expressive.' (see Paul Moorehouse, 'The forms of things unknown: Anthony Caro's sculpture', Anthony Caro, Tate Publishing, London, 2005, p.13) Caro's output as a sculptor is defined by his continual quest for experimentation and exploration. Forever pushing at the boundaries of his art, every sculpture by this artist plays a critical part in this discourse of questioning and reinvention, and Lagoon is no exception.

Auction Notices

• This piece was commissioned from the sculptor, Sir Anthony Caro, by the Peterborough Trust to stand outside. The piece rests on five legs. It is the sculptor's view that these legs are not his work. That is not the recollection of the staff of the Peterborough Trust who were involved many years ago with the installation of the piece on site. At some stage the sculpture was spray painted in certain areas by vandals. Most of the paint has been removed but some traces remain.

---

Category: Fine Art / 20th Century British Art

---

Auction terms and conditions