Making sculpture: views from the studio

While Caro’s individual achievements as an artist are self-evident his commitment to sculpture as a social activity is less well known or documented. As a teacher at St Martin’s from the late fifties he abolished individual working spaces, and insisted on discussing sculpture in group ‘Crits’ and public ‘Forums’. In the eighties he founded the Triangle Workshops, which brought artists from around the world together for a number of weeks, to make art alongside each other in a ‘pressure-cooker situation’ where competition and discussion were encouraged.

As likely to take inspiration from the work of students and his immediate contemporaries as from classical Greece, Rembrandt or Picasso, Caro adopted a restless, experimental and improvisational approach throughout his career. In addition to his long-standing relationship with his studio assistant Pat Cunningham, who worked for Caro for over 40 years, a succession of young artists worked alongside him to expand the scale and ambition of his sculpture.

Drawing on the testimony of fellow artists, studio assistants, and his colleagues at St Martin's and Triangle, the symposium sets out explore Caro’s legacy from the perspective of different generations.