TONY CRAGG INFINITE FORME E BELLISSIME
“L’arte è l’unica disciplina che usa la materia e i materiali in senso non utilitaristico, solo per
creare nuove forme, nuove idee, nuove emozioni.”
Tony Cragg
2024
Review by Beatrice
Curated by Sergio Risaliti and Stéphane Verger
November 9, 2024 - May 4, 2025
Museo Nazionale Romano
Baths of Diocletian
Via Enrico de Nicola, 78 - Rome
www.museonazionaleromano.beniculturali.it
"Art is the only discipline that uses matter and materials in a non-utilitarian sense, solely to create new forms, new ideas, new emotions."
—Tony Cragg
The exhibition "Tony Cragg. Infinite Forms and Beautiful" brings 18 sculptures created in the past two decades to the Halls of the Baths of Diocletian. The ancient structures of the Baths are no strangers to dialog with contemporary works: their alternating histories, the numerous transformations they have undergone, and the centuries they have spanned make them a vibrant and welcoming setting. This exhibit establishes a stimulating encounter between the pure, essential architecture of the bath spaces—their grand roofs and the geometric volumes of Halls X, XI, and XI bis—and the seductive, unsettling, and mysterious forms of the British artist's sculptures. It is a fascinating and dynamic encounter between the constructional perfection of the ancient world and references to natural elements from the mineral and vegetal worlds, as well as geology and biology, evoking ocean waves or the geometric patterns of a plant or a shell. The various materials used in the works—bronze, wood, travertine, steel, fiberglass—join in this polyphonic interplay of elements, interacting with the soft, sculpted shapes of ancient sarcophagi and marble statues, the purplish tones of brickwork, and the black and white tesserae of mosaics. The exploration of relationships between natural forms and artificial spaces is not limited to the ancient Roman architecture alone; it radiates beyond the Baths of Diocletian through streets and roads, reaching the city's squares, where familiar shapes now reveal themselves as new and unexpected.
“Infinite Forms and Beautiful” references a famous phrase by Charles Darwin: "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." From here comes the title of the exhibition, evoking the artist's boundless enthusiasm for the richness of life’s architecture, from microcosm to macrocosm, and the marvel inspired by thought itself, which never tires of delving into reality, exploring the inexhaustible wealth of forms and models, structures, and generative processes that the natural world places before our eyes—a richness mirrored in the artist’s work, particularly that of the sculptor, who can 'think' and create new forms without limits in the use of means and materials. A fruitful exchange of intuitions and images between the natural and the artificial, between biomorphic and virtual models, drawing on the observation of organic compositions and the crystalline structures of minerals, up to digitally crafted forms and artificially created products in laboratories: from archaeology to geology, from art history to biology.
Tony Cragg (Liverpool, 1949), after graduation, worked for two years as a laboratory technician in biochemistry research. During this period, he began to draw and was admitted in 1969 to the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and later to Wimbledon School of Art. In 1973, he enrolled at the Royal College of Art in London, focusing on sculpture. Before working with traditional materials like stone, iron, and bronze, his pieces were conceived as assemblages of discarded elements and objets trouvés, influenced by Minimalism and Land Art. In 1976, he began teaching at the École des Beaux-Arts in Metz, and the following year he moved to Wuppertal, where he founded the Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden in 2008. From 1978 to 1988, he taught at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, later in Berlin at the University of the Arts, where he taught sculpture, and in 2006 at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, where he was director from 2009 to 2014.
Since 1977, his work has been exhibited in major museums and institutions worldwide; his works are part of the most important public and private art collections. He has frequently represented the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel, as well as the biennales in São Paulo and Sydney. In 1988, he was awarded the Turner Prize. After receiving several honorary doctorates and many other prestigious awards, he was appointed Commander of the British Empire in 2003. In 2007, the Japanese Imperial Court awarded him the Praemium Imperiale as one of the leading sculptors of today. Recently, his works have appeared in solo exhibitions, including one in 2022 at the Museo Novecento in Florence, where a partial recreation of his studio was displayed alongside sculptures and drawings; in 2023 at the Reggia di Venaria, and at the Olivetti Store in Piazza San Marco, Venice, until November 2024.
HOURS
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:30 AM to 7:00 PM, last entry at 6:00 PM.
TICKETS
Single-site admission €12 (includes exhibition); reduced €2.
Combined ticket for all sites €12; reduced €6, allowing one-time access to each site: Baths of Diocletian, Palazzo Massimo, and Palazzo Altemps (Crypta Balbi closed for PNRR-related works) and valid for one week from the date of purchase. The MNR Card grants unlimited access to all museum sites, valid for one year from the date of purchase at €25; reduced €15. Link to legal concessions
Museo Nazionale Romano – Baths of Diocletian
Via Enrico de Nicola, 78
Open to the public: Tuesday – Sunday, 9:30 AM – 7:00 PM (last entry at 6:00 PM)
Museo Nazionale Romano
Communication, Promotion, and Marketing Office
Angelina Travaglini Press Office
www.museonazionaleromano.beniculturali.it
Contact
Lara Facco P&C
Via della Moscova 18, 20121 Milan | [email protected]
Lara Facco | +39 349 2529989 | [email protected]
Camilla Capponi | +39 366 3947098 | [email protected]
Marta Zanichelli | +39 339 2816693 | [email protected]
Bam - Eventi d’Arte
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Maria Isabella Barone