The Exhibition
»I’ve come to realise how drawing is something very intimate. I can live well with exhibiting a work but I really don’t like drawing for other people.
[…] To be honest, I draw just for myself.« (Tony Cragg)
Tony Cragg (*1949 Liverpool) is one of the most innovative and versatile sculptors in the international contemporary art world. Less well known is that since the outset of his artistic career in the 1970s, he has created an extensive body of drawings in which he »thinks sculpture«. This group of works has grown over decades and its unusual motifs are often a surprise. It acts as a source of inspiration of the highest order and it provides a profound insight into his thought process regarding his own work.
With the exhibition CRAGG, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München once more addresses the question as to the importance of drawing in the 21st century as a driving force within the visual arts and examines its role as an existential form of expression of the human intellect and its creative potency. By presenting drawing and sculpture together our exhibition succeeds in providing unexpected insights that deepen our understanding of Tony Cragg’s artistic œuvre. In the work of no other contemporary sculptor is the creative symbiosis of the two artistic media this fertile.
We are very fortunate that, for the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung’s exhibition in the Pinakothek, the artist has given the curator carte blanche to draw in full from a large body of work and to look at his sculptural œuvre anew, covering not just all media but also all periods. Through the interplay of drawings and works on paper, as well as photographs and sculptures, synergies unfold in the exhibition space in an unprecedented way, and the symbiosis of sculpture and drawing is made manifest in powerful juxtapositions.
Rarely has a collaboration been as inspiring as the one with Tony Cragg – we consider it a gift.
Michael Hering
Director
Planning your visit
Open today till 6.00 pm
Daily 10.00 – 18.00
Thursday 10.00 – 20.00
Monday closed
Barer Straße 40
80333 München
Sunday admission 1€
Thursday – Saturday 10€
reduced 7€
Day pass (Alte Pinakothek, Pinakothek der Moderne, Museum Brandhorst, Sammlung Schack) 12€