The London 2012 Gold Kilo Coin

The Royal Mint, in partnership with the Royal Academy of Arts, has unveiled the first ever UK Gold Kilo coin, designed by Anthony Caro. It is fitting that an artist renowned for large dramatic sculpture should have been chosen to design a coin of such stature – Britain’s first kilo coin.

In his magnificent design for the coin for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Anthony Caro has remained true to his sculptural ideals, creating an imposing design that it took all the skill of the Royal Mint’s hugely experienced craftsmen to embody. The coin, which represents individual endeavour at the Games, is in a sculptured relief that is far higher than any other UK coin struck by the Royal Mint, lending extra gravitas to an impressive numismatic first.

It contains one kilo of fine gold, has a low issue limit of just 60, is presented in a beautifully crafted, specially designed presentation box, accompanied by an individually numbered Certificate of Authenticity, personally signed by Anthony Caro. For further information, visit the Royal Mint website.

Caro at Chatsworth

The first-ever show devoted to a single artist at Chatsworth provides a unique opportunity to see Anthony Caro’s larger work in one of Britain’s most famous historic settings. All the sculptures in the exhibition in the spectacular gardens have been lent by the artist and reflect his major concerns over the past four decades. Early steel sculptures painted blue, orange and green from the 1960s are shown alongside examples from the renowned Flats series made in Canada in rusted and varnished steel in the 1970s. More recent works from the 1990s reflect Caro’s continual experimentation with the surface, form and structure of steel. Immediately in front of the south lawn, the striking ziggurats of the monumental Goodwood Steps will echo the architecture of Chatsworth House itself.

The associated exhibitions include a show of bronze sculptures from the House series at Yorkshire Sculpture Park which have never been seen before. 16 March - 1 July 2012; Anthony Caro: Reliefs and Standing Sculptures at Roche Court New Art Centre in Wiltshire 21 April-24 June 2012, featuring new works cast in coloured resin, and the installation of Caro’s Woman Waking Up (1956), on loan from the Arts Council Collection, as part of a new collection display focusing on post-war British art at the Hepworth Wakefield, opening May 2012.

Press release

NEW FIVE-VOLUME BOXED SET OF BOOKS

Since the mid-1950s when he first announced himself as a young sculptor to be reckoned with, Anthony Caro has explored a vast range of sculptural possibilities, testing limits and exploring new ideas about the nature of the art form. The Caro pendulum has swung between extremes of linearity and robustness, abstractness and allusion. He has countered his mastery of line and transparency with investigations of our responses to mass and perception of interior and exterior, even experimenting with literally enterable sculptures. He has made rigorously abstract constructions, intimate table-based pieces, monumental constructions like metaphorical architecture, complex multi-part cycles of narrative works and much more. Yet, notwithstanding the range and variety of his work, there are also common threads that run through it all, from the beginning of his career to the present.

The five volumes in this set, each by a different critic, examine the various aspects of Caro’s evolution individually, tracing the permutations of different themes – narrative, volume and mass, line and openness – throughout his work, over time. Each volume is independent and explores different territory, but cumulatively, by tracing these dominant themes, they provide new insight into his achievement. Published by Lund Humphries, April 2010. ISBN: 978-1-84822-057-7. Series editor Karen Wilkin. Each volume hardback, 280 x 240mm. Price £120, website price on www.ashgate.com £108. The volumes are also available individually, price £30, website price at www.ashgate.com £27.

Mary Reid: Anthony Caro: Drawing in Space

Karen Wilkin: Anthony Caro: Interior and Exterior

Julius Bryant: Figurative and Narrative Sculpture

H F Westley Smith: Anthony Caro: Small Sculptures

Paul Moorhouse: Anthony Caro: Presence