Room 8: Table sculpture in mixed media: 1973-1997 Installation shot at Tate (from left to right) Table Piece CCLXVI (1975), Arena Piece 'Beginning' (1995), Table Piece 'Catalan Maid' (1987-8), Table Piece Y-87 'Knave's Measure' (1987), Table Piece CLXIII (1973), Writing Piece 'Whence' (1978), Gold Block I (1997) Enlarge image   Déjeuner sur l’ herbe II 1989 Tate. © The artist, Barford Sculptures Ltd.

This room includes table sculpture and mixed media work from the early 1970s onwards. During this period, Caro's sculpture developed on an ever broadening front. Whereas earlier he worked mainly in steel, he has increasingly used other media, including bronze, brass, wood, ceramic and paper. This expansion has been a renewed source of energy. He explained 'I felt much more freedom to experiment, freedom to try anything'.

Alongside these new media, there is a relaxing of the imperative for pure abstract expression. These sculptures reveal an expanded range of references, including architecture and the figure.

"I guess it [Déjeuner sur l'Herbe II] to be the most complex of the work of the late eighties, yet its every complication is fashioned with ease, and every transition is also a detail on which the eye may linger."

Tim Hilton, The Guardian 27 June 1990.