Since British sculptor Anthony Cragg (born 1949) began working in the 1970s and came to fame in the 1980s as part of the New British Sculpture generation, his work has undergone a number of permutations while consistently remaining motivated by a fundamental concern with the qualities of his materials--whether they be found objects, raw materials or manufactured compounds like fiberglass. From his early installations featuring modest arrangements of found objects to his recent sculptural forms that look like natural accretions experiencing computer glitches, Cragg remains deeply committed to material and to sculpture. Cragg's work is immensely varied, encompassing drawing, sketching, modeling and photography, as well as the production of finished sculptures. All these elements of Cragg's oeuvre are accounted for in Anthony Cragg: Parts of the World, the artist's first retrospective monograph. Objects are arranged in roughly chronological order, and supplemented by texts drawn from the same chronological span, allowing the reader to reconstruct a history of Cragg's reception as well as his artistic production. Including texts by Germano Celant, Lynn Cooke, Peter Schjeldahl and Thomas McEvilley written since the 1980s, Anthony Cragg: Parts of the World concludes in the present, with an essay by Jon Wood and a recent interview with the artist.
