He may now live in Germany, but he loves returning to Britain, not just to put on a show, but to enjoy the weather, the food, the humour – and the selfie-takers in galleries
L
et’s suppose that you are a Turner prize-winning sculptor, with more than 50 years in the game. One restless night, an idea comes to you. You work it up in your studio and send it off to the foundry, to be cast in bronze. Finally, you’re ready to show it to the world, but the first person through the gallery doors barely glances at it before taking a selfie with it. What do you do? Bear in mind that you are Tony Cragg, Royal Academician, and you are on record bemoaning the preference of many art-lovers for listening to audio guides as they tour exhibitions.
The perhaps unlikely answer is that you welcome the selfie-taker with outstretched arms, or at least give a convincing impression of doing so. “No, I don’t have problem with that,” says Cragg, albeit faintly, as if he’s thinking about the people who might be crossing the threshold of his latest show, which just opened in London. “People are bound to respond in different ways.”
Liverpool-born Cragg, in a zip-up sweater and dark trousers, is a lean 76-year-old but could pass for 20 years younger. He has lived for many years in Wuppertal, Germany, exhibiting and teaching across the continent and collecting many honours to add to his 1988 Turner gong. He has had his own decided views and gone his own way since he told his father he wanted to be an artist as a teenager. “He said, ‘What a waste of time and education!’ My father was bitterly disappointed. He was an electrical engineer and worked on aircraft and thought sculpture was a very dull and unnecessary activity.”
