A major figure in contemporary sculpture, Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool in 1949. After training in science and a first job as a technician in a chemical laboratory, he began studying art. In 1976, he became a lecturer at the École des Beaux-Arts in Metz, and from 1978, he taught at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf.
In the 1980s, Tony Cragg became part of the British New Sculpture movement. Heir to New Realism and Neo-Dadaism, the artist used everyday objects and detritus as the basis for colorful figurative compositions. He then turned to working with wood, glass, bronze and polished steel. His most recent works present abstract and organic forms, accumulations of strata and volutes.
Tony Cragg's work has been exhibited worldwide. In 1988, he represented the UK at the Venice Biennale. In 2011, the Musée du Louvre invited him to confront his sculptures with those of Messerschmidt. The Musée d'art moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole is currently devoting an exhibition to him (until January 5, 2014). Tony Cragg is the winner of the Turner Prize (1988) and the Praemium Imperial Prize (2007). Since 1977, he has lived and worked in Wuppertal (Germany), where he opened a sculpture park in 2008.
