Tony Cragg

Acquired from the artist by the present owner

Goodwood, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Tony Cragg at Goodwood, 2005, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Tony Cragg Sculpture and Drawings, 2011, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Taichung City, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Tony Cragg: Sculptures and Drawings, 2013

Claire Shea & Kate Pratt (eds.), Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, 2012, illustrated in colour pp. 84-88
Claire Shea (ed.), Cass Sculpture Foundation, Ostfildern, 2012, illustrated in colour pp. 90-94

Declination is an important work from Tony Cragg’s series of  Early Forms, the title of which derives from the fact that vessels are among the first surviving man-made forms, and that they fulfil both aesthetic and functional purposes. The forms for sculptures such as Declination originate from all sorts of vessels, from ancient ewers, test tubes to detergent bottles, which then undergo artistic metamorphosis - from functionality and visual recognition towards a new form which utterly sublimates the original model and its purpose. The temporal reference in the title of the series also alludes to the transformative process endemic to the sculptor's art: from the initial concept to maquettes to finished work. The earliest forms are manifest in the final forms but have evolved over time. Within this context Declination presents the further development Cragg has made over the last twenty years; its monumentality, total absence of egress, and striking colouration position it as one of the most important works from this series to date. Patrick Elliot points out: ‘Another evolution in the Early Forms sculptures in recent years has been their elevation from the ground, as in Declination, a big, two-and-a-half ton yellow-painted bronze (the title derives from an astronomical term connected with the sun) which stand nimbly on three points’ (P. Elliot, Tony Cragg Sculpture and Drawings (exhibition catalogue), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 2011, p. 114). The artist’s own cast of the present work is on permanent display in the Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Germany.