Tony Cragg - Contemporary Art Day Sale New York Friday, May 11, 2012 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Holtermann Fine Art, London
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Exhibited

    New York, Marian Goodman Gallery, Tony Cragg, May 3 - June 9, 2007
    Paris, Le Louvre, Tony Cragg, January 28 - October 1, 2011 (another example exhibited)
    Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Tony Cragg: Sculptures and Drawings, July 30 – November 6, 2011 (another example exhibited)

  • Literature

    R. Ayers, "Interview with Tony Cragg", ArtInfo, May, 2007

  • Catalogue Essay

    Tony Cragg first came to widespread public attention with a series of works made fromfound materialsat the beginning of the 1980's. Since then he has gained a reputation as one of the most intelligent, prolific, and articulate contemporary sculptors today. Cragg's recent sculptures, as seen in the present lot, Level Head, 2006, have taken on an abstract and figurative quality all at once, evoking feelings, ideas, fantasies and allusions similar to that of Surrealism. Cragg himself has described his sculptures as fictional entities where decisions are made entirely on an aesthetic basis, allowing his works of art to create themselves organically and very much on their own accord.

    "There is this idea that sculpture is static, or maybe even dead, but I feel absolutely contrary to that. I’m not a religious person—I’m an absolute materialist—and for me material is exciting and ultimately sublime. When I’m involved in making sculpture, I’m looking for a system of belief or ethics in the material. I want that material to have a dynamic, to push and move and grow.... I think that the way that we look at sculpture is important, because it’s not moving and you realize how kineastically you look at it — you are the moving element. What a challenge this is for our perceptions. Perhaps you were going to ask, 'What is your favorite material?' The most important material is our own brains, because that’s where you effect the change. Change outside is OK, but the real change is in our own brains." - Tony Cragg
    (R. Ayers, "Interview with Tony Cragg", ArtInfo, May, 2007)

169

Level Head

2007
bronze with black patina
78 3/4 x 47 1/4 x 31 1/2 in. (200 x 120 x 80 cm)
Inscribed with the signature and dated "Tony Cragg 2007" and stamped with the foundry mark. This work is from an edition of five plus one artist's proof.

Estimate
$120,000 - 180,000 

Sold for $266,500

Contemporary Art Day Sale

Contemporary Art Day
11 May 2012
New York