Page 49 - Studio International - March 1969

object and its particular properties. In this Caro pushed himself into a new kind of work. LXIV [46]. The latter was reproduced in
way he will force into life as sculpture an idea As always, in his development, physical Studio International, January 1969 p. 19.) the
which involves conceptual innovation. Often, action and selection are the means to dis- contact is, as it were, voluntary: gravity
where an element has thus been selected covery of an aesthetic intention. In the later does not enforce it, and the sculpture appears
ready-made for characteristics which seem table sculptures of 1968 the same area of to rest the more lightly in relation to the
relevant to Caro's idea, the associations which physical response is called into play by works space we move in and the surfaces we use.
are carried over upset the integrity of the which are totally abstract and supremely What looks at first like re-instatement of the
sculpture. The sculptures which result, though elegant. Each phase of Caro's work is less pedestal is in fact quite the opposite; it is
less abstract and formally less integrated than crude than the last. adding another dimension to the freedom of
accomplished works like Sleepwalk [19], The His development has been in favour of sculpture in the world which we normally
window [30] or Prairie, [31] often embody sculptural relationships which are open and inhabit. It is as if the more contacts are made,
the excitement of discovery. The flat vertical assertive, but stable. Nothing is held in with surfaces and between elements, the
plate at one end of Early one morning, [8] balance in his sculpture; that is to say the better Caro is able to demonstrate how much
reads too much like a blackboard or an easel— elements could not be displaced without being can be offered and how little need be thrust
a separate element; yet the implication of actually bent or broken. In the superb Source upon us. As I wrote at the beginning, the
transparency when it is seen behind the high of 1967 [32], the flat plane which is inclined up making of sculpture has been a means of
horizontal bar at the other end prefigures the from the ground appears to be held at a change for Caro. Over a period of 15 years
mesh screens of four years later. particular angle by a thin tube which itself the most evident change has been in favour
The tank lids which Caro has used in other rests against the side of a mesh screen. In fact of sculptural relationships which are open
sculptures more recently (Argentine, After the inclined plane is supported underneath by and unassertive but stable. He is interested in
summer, LXIII, LXXIII) carry unavoidable a thick wedge. The tension is implicit; it is the extension of possibility in the areas of
associations with David Smith; they are not structural. The structural support is not action, experience and sensation. He is not
almost a cliché of his work. Their use by Caro concealed, but neither does it obtrude. interested in being as articulate as possible
suggests an initial acknowledgement of Source illustrates two of the most telling within certain limits so much as in stretching
Smith's position as a precursor, and a response characteristics of Caro's art: the embodiment the area within which he can articulate.
to some of the challenges which Smith's work of emotional tension in absolutely stable In the works of the last two years the relation-
provides for Caro, particularly in his greater structure, and the joining of elements at points ships which establish his sculpture have
range of operation between the linear and the where they appear only to touch. The sense of become increasingly liberated in space and
solid form. In the end, however, Caro's use of touch is crucial and the kind of contact which less dependent upon actual physical connec-
the tank lids has become completely Caro favours is generally discrete: the meeting tion. The fact that one part of Prairie is totally
idiosyncratic: he has used them to add a of identities separately respected, not the detached from the rest of the structure passes
new element to the openness of his sculpture, dynamic fusion of incompatibles. In Caro's almost unnoticed because the relationship of
a cursiveness which is no longer essentially most successful works the relationships parts is so completely and so unassertively
linear (as it is in Month of May or Horizon) but established where elements touch exert a achieved in space. And yet this physical
which, particularly in two very recent works, greater hold over our sensations than the separation of elements is a radical step for
LXXIII [50] and the large After summer [35] both physical characteristics of those elements. In Caro, who has typically stressed physical
of 1968, suggests the opening, in one, and the Prairie the key points are those at which the juncture even, as in Horizon [25], where points
unfurling, in the other, of a closed volume. horizontal poles meet the planes which sup- of minimal contact are involved. (The one
Every new element that is added to Caro's port them. Because our attention is focussed other exception, The horse of 1961, involves a
work adds to the means by which the experi- upon these separate points of touch and upon `sparking gap' of only an inch or two.)
ence of openness can be evoked. (It is the fragility of the contacts thus made, the The combination of self-sufficiency of total
significant that Caro could not use the tank literal means of joining, which differ widely form—felt as stability, harmony and elegance
lids without dividing them: the cupped circle between the four poles, are of less moment —with extreme openness of area or of outline
would have been too contained a form.) than the quality of the joints, which is con- gives Caro's works of the last three to four
In the earliest of his table sculptures, like VIII sistently delicate. For instance, in order to years a character to which it would be hard
of 1966, Caro used found elements—handles compensate for the greater area of adhesion not to respond with gladness and with
and grips—in order to invest the sculptures where one of the outside poles is joined to a warmth. There is a danger that the success
with a direct appeal to the hand, and to large vertical plate, Caro has lightened the of this exhibition—and it is bound to be both
evoke movements of weight which the arm contact by thickening the upper part of the successful and influential—will create a
could accomplish unaided (as opposed to plate and leaving a thin line of shadow demand and a market for work which could
pieces like Midday [5] or Sculpture seven, [6] between its lower edge and the round edge never be as good. The concept of 'radicalism'
which you would need, as it were, to put your of the pole, which thus appears to rest lightly seems to me disastrously limiting unless it is
shoulder to). Scale, in Caro's work, is a matter beneath it, the welding hidden. By modelling so broadly interpreted as to lose all usefulness;
of how the body relates to the work, how we the elements—thickening planes or bending nevertheless I believe that radical innovations
would handle it. (The joints in the smaller poles— Caro adjusts the relationships within are demanded of those who wish to create
sculptures are all welded, none bolted, a work until the mood of the whole is both good sculpture now and radical adjustments
because these works can satisfactorily be right and consistent. of those who wish to comprehend it. Caro
handled in one piece. Apart from the early, It is at points of contact, also, that the will always be a fine sculptor. Because what
massive works Caro's sculptures are composed relationships between sculpture and floor or he has discovered has been so much to do
not so much into structural elements as into sculpture and table are made. In the recent with process and with the personal moral
pieces of comparable weight, for ease of table sculptures, structure and stability are consequences of a change of habit, he is him-
management.) The grips and handles are so defined in relation to two or even three sur- self best placed to see to the end of what he
specific, so separately identifiable, in works like faces by means of pressure and abuttment — has begun. No one, that is to say, will ever
VIII [36] and XVIII [37], as to be really alarm- the placing of flat edge against flat surface or make sculpture as strong as Caro's using
ing in the context of abstract sculpture, but the setting of two points of contact upon the Caro's criteria. The lesson to be learned from
one can now see that their inclusion in the arms of a right angle. Where a vertical plane his art is not a lesson in style.
sculptures was primarily the means by which meets a vertical surface (as in LXIII [45] or CHARLES HARRISON