Sir Anthony Caro

Early One Morning

1962

Courtesy of Barford Sculptures Ltd

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Not on display

Artist: Sir Anthony Caro 1924–2013
Medium: Painted steel and aluminium
Dimensions: Object: 2896 x 6198 x 3353 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1965
Reference: T00805

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Early One Morning is a major example of the kind of sculpture that established Caro as the leading young sculptor of the 1960s. In this work, his arrangement of planes and lines along a horizontal axis gave greater freedom in creating different rhythms and configurations. The work has no fixed visual identity and no single focus of interest. Rather, it unfolds and expands into the spectator’s space, its appearance changing with the viewpoint. The individual elements are unified by the bright red colour and Caro sees the way they cohere, making a sculptural whole, as being like the relationship of notes within a piece of music.

Gallery label, September 2016

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Catalogue entry

Anthony Caro b. 1924

T00805 Early One Morning 1962

Not inscribed.
Painted steel and aluminium, 114 x 244 x 132 (290 x 620 x 335).
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1965.
Coll: Purchased by the C.A.S. from the artist through Kasmin Ltd. 1965.
Exh: Whitechapel Art Gallery, September-October 1963 (12, repr. in colour and in black and white); C.A.S., British Sculpture in the Sixties, Tate Gallery, February-April 1965 (19, repr.); Venice Biennale, 1966 (British Pavilion 36, repr. in illustrated catalogue). Repr: Art and Artists, I, June 1966, p. 27; Studio International, CLXXI, 1966, p. 232.

These two works are major examples of Caro’s painted metal sculptures which he has been producing since 1960. ‘Early One Morning’ is among the first in which the industrial associations of rough and massive girders were largely eliminated in favour of an effect of weightlessness.

Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1965–1966, London 1967.