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87. TONY CRAGG,
30 January - 9 May 1999

Tony Cragg became known to a wider public during the first part of the 1980s for his works made of pieces of coloured plastic. These early works already showed signs of the artist s desire to make a courageous and completely conscious break with classical, figure-based sculpture and from the abstract traditions of modernism.

Right from the very beginning, Tony Cragg has open-mindedly taken on new visual and intellectual challenges which, for the most part, are from the present period, with his work incorporating new man-made, synthetic materials or the latest concepts of natural science concerning the existence of organic nature. His studio could well be regarded as a laboratory in which the scenic elements of the macrocosm merge with the forms of the microcosm.

Duchamp s remarkable insight in using the ready-made as a work of art has an even more impressive scale and dimension in Cragg s sculptures. For Cragg, however, the ready-made is only one point of departure: it is a storehouse of forms. Associations with an existing object or natural form gives the viewer a feeling of familiarity. Previous experiences become new when the artist turns the inner surface into the outer surface, the small into large, the heavy into light, the opaque into transparent, defying all the conventions of traditional sculpture. The viewer is drawn into the visual adventure, the dynamics, which is typical of Cragg s total oeuvre, and into the dialogue of the object and the body in relation to the concept of the work of art. The sculptures, which have come into being after an intense creative process, have a very strong narrative feeling, and, at the same time, as true works of art they reject any idea of their having a specific purpose, and passionately enjoy their own existence.

The exhibition in the Sara Hildén Art Museum displayed Tony Cragg s oeuvre from 1988- 1998, and it contained 33 sculptures and a large number of drawings. Both floors of the museum were used for the exhibition. The exhibition was organised by the Sara Hildén Art Museum in cooperation with the artist, and it was on show only in Tampere.

14 164 visitors attended the exhibition.