Imagine being a Turner Prize-winning sculptor with over 50 years of experience, only to watch gallery visitors barely glance at your carefully crafted bronze sculptures before snapping selfies with them. For Tony Cragg, the 76-year-old Royal Academician from Liverpool, this modern reality represents just one of many changes he's witnessed during his extraordinary career in contemporary art.
Despite his well-documented concerns about audio guides interfering with viewers' direct relationship with artwork, Cragg welcomes these selfie-taking visitors with surprising openness. "No, I don't have a problem with that," he says, though somewhat faintly, acknowledging that "people are bound to respond in different ways" to his latest exhibition that recently opened in London.
Cragg's artistic journey began against strong family opposition. His father, an electrical engineer who worked on aircraft, was "bitterly disappointed" when his teenage son announced his artistic ambitions. "What a waste of time and education!" his father declared, considering sculpture "a very dull and unnecessary activity." This early resistance only strengthened Cragg's resolve to pursue his own path in the art world.
Now appearing decades younger than his 76 years, dressed casually in a zip-up sweater and dark trousers, Cragg has spent most of his adult life in Wuppertal, Germany, while maintaining strong ties to his British roots. "I've lived abroad for the main part of my life, but I still feel very British," he explains. "When I come back to Britain, immediately I'm more relaxed. I love British humor. I love the weather. I love the food. I feel like I'm back home, anyway." He remains a devoted Liverpool FC supporter, noting with characteristic wit, "Someone once told me, as an artist you're only as good as your last show, and in football you're only as good as your last game."
Cragg's philosophy about art appreciation centers on direct, unmediated experience. He believes audio guides disrupt the natural dialogue between viewer and artwork. "If you have a picture on a wall, it doesn't matter what the artist's intention was," he explains. "A hundred people stand in front of it and they will tell you a hundred different things about it. The person comes with their education, background and abilities – and responds to what's in front of them. People interjecting all the time disturbs that direct dialogue with the artwork."
His recent works feature tall, free-standing forms that suggest buckled or twisted skeletal structures. Unlike his early career when he personally transported his pieces, Cragg now relies on a professional team. "I have a fantastic team," he says. "They do everything. I arrived yesterday, moved things around for an hour, then left." When asked if he still takes his art on planes, he laughs, "I used to."
Cragg's early work directly addressed political and social issues in Britain, including "Riot," a frieze created following the 1984 miners' strike and clashes between police and youths in Brixton, London. His decision to leave Britain in 1977 coincided with the beginning of the Thatcher era. "It was the beginning of the Thatcher period, and the destruction of the arts schools here, and a lot of other developments," he recalls. "It was a very extreme form of capitalism that paid no regard to the needs of the wider population."
His work has incorporated British symbols like the crown jewels and the Union Jack, and he views recent nationalist movements with concern. Brexit particularly disappointed him: "This idea of isolationism, stepping back – I think it's bad for the general population. It's sad. And then you feel tendencies which are very nationalistic." He reflects on how attitudes have evolved since his youth: "When I was growing up, the French were Frogs and the Germans were Krauts. My parents were very unhappy that I went to Germany because of the war."
Living in Germany provided Cragg with new perspectives, particularly through his work at the Royal College, which led to a year working in France. "I realized, 'Hey, the food's not bad here!' I noticed the furniture and the way the French treated their families: wow!" However, he acknowledges the burden of history his German children carry: "My children, who are German, have this terrible burden of their history on their shoulders, from their grandparents' generation."
As a sculptor, Cragg firmly rejects traditional representational art, considering portrait busts and realistic animal sculptures a waste of time. "For me, representing exactly what's in front of you is a senseless activity, a vain attempt by humans to parody or copy nature." While acknowledging masters like 17th-century Italian Gian Lorenzo Bernini, he believes the era of figurative sculpture has long passed. He traces the evolution from Auguste Rodin, who "incorporated the ideas of Sigmund Freud into their work," through Marcel Duchamp's revolutionary readymades, to contemporary artists like Damien Hirst, who "took it to another dimension with a shark in a tank."
Despite starting his career in a laboratory, Cragg strongly advocates for art education alongside STEM subjects, arguing that without art lessons, students struggle to visualize their learning. "Art is one of the best ways for people to have a better existence. It makes life more livable," he states. "To ignore that, in a way that has happened in Britain, is almost criminal."
Cragg's passion for his work remains undiminished after five decades. "I hate holidays," he admits. Instead of traditional vacations, he's found an ideal solution in Scandinavia: "We found somewhere we can spend the summer in a very beautiful place where there's the ocean and nature – and a studio! That's perfect for me, it's my dream." His creativity continues at full force, showing a list of new ideas on his phone with titles like "First and Second," "Recall," "For a While," "Long-stop," "On and off," "Way to Go," "Path," and "Backtrack." When asked if this represented a month's worth of ideas, he responds with characteristic understatement: "I hate to say it, but that was last night."
The transformation in contemporary art's popularity amazes Cragg, who remembers when such acceptance seemed impossible. "Now, everywhere you go has its own gallery. I live within an hour of 40 galleries showing contemporary art," he observes. "But in Britain, there used to be just London. In France, only Paris." He recalls early efforts to bring modern art to rural areas in France, where "the people threw food at it!" Today's art world represents a dramatic shift from those hostile beginnings to widespread embrace of contemporary sculpture and installation work.
Tony Cragg's sculptures are currently on display at Lisson Gallery in London through January 31, offering visitors the opportunity to experience firsthand the work of an artist who has witnessed and shaped the evolution of contemporary sculpture over five remarkable decades.
