Sale: 600 / Evening Sale, Dec. 05. 2025 in Munich 
Lot 125000966
Lot 125000966
Back side
125000966
Tony Cragg
Line of Thought, 2002.
Bronze with black-brown patina
Estimate:
€ 150,000 - 250,000
$ 174,000 - 290,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Tony Cragg
1949
Line of Thought. 2002.
Bronze with black-brown patina.
The lower edge bears the artist's signature, the designation “E/A,” and the foundry stamp. Artist's copy aside from the edition of six copies. Height (without base): 118 cm (46.4 in). Base: 30,5 cm (12 in).
Cast by Art Foundry Schmäke, Düsseldorf.
The title of the work is not only the title of the current retrospective solo exhibition at the Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Wuppertal (until January 1, 2026), but also the title of the latest book about his work of recent decades, compiled in cooperation with the British art historian Jon Wood. [CH].
• Cragg's characteristic formal language in perfect balance
• With overlapping layers and curves, he creates a formal structure that oscillates between figuration and abstraction
• Until January 1, 2026, the Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden in Wuppertal presents the exhibition of the same name, “Tony Cragg – Line of Thought”
• Tony Cragg's sculptures are in numerous museum collections, including the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., and the Tate Gallery, London.
PROVENANCE: Marie-Christine Gennart Contemporary, Brussels.
Private collection, Belgium (acquired from the above in 2003).
“There is this wonderful quote from T. S. Eliot, who said: ‘Poetry communicates before you understand it.’ – With poetry, it’s the same as with art in general.”
Tony Cragg, transcribed from: Tony Cragg on sculpture (video), Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, August 27, 2025
1949
Line of Thought. 2002.
Bronze with black-brown patina.
The lower edge bears the artist's signature, the designation “E/A,” and the foundry stamp. Artist's copy aside from the edition of six copies. Height (without base): 118 cm (46.4 in). Base: 30,5 cm (12 in).
Cast by Art Foundry Schmäke, Düsseldorf.
The title of the work is not only the title of the current retrospective solo exhibition at the Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Wuppertal (until January 1, 2026), but also the title of the latest book about his work of recent decades, compiled in cooperation with the British art historian Jon Wood. [CH].
• Cragg's characteristic formal language in perfect balance
• With overlapping layers and curves, he creates a formal structure that oscillates between figuration and abstraction
• Until January 1, 2026, the Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden in Wuppertal presents the exhibition of the same name, “Tony Cragg – Line of Thought”
• Tony Cragg's sculptures are in numerous museum collections, including the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., and the Tate Gallery, London.
PROVENANCE: Marie-Christine Gennart Contemporary, Brussels.
Private collection, Belgium (acquired from the above in 2003).
“There is this wonderful quote from T. S. Eliot, who said: ‘Poetry communicates before you understand it.’ – With poetry, it’s the same as with art in general.”
Tony Cragg, transcribed from: Tony Cragg on sculpture (video), Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, August 27, 2025
Nature is a key source of inspiration for Tony Cragg's extraordinary works. Although the artist does not simply seek to imitate nature as it exists, he aims to create entirely new forms that have not yet been found in the reality that surrounds us. In an intensive exploration of a wide variety of materials, including glass, stainless steel, wood, and bronze, the artist discovers enormous potential for such novel forms, which form an ideal unity with the respective material they are made of. The present work, “Line of Thought,” also plays with our viewing habits, appearing as an elegantly curved structure that spreads out and rises in many gentle bulges, like a naturally formed, living organism. From certain angles, familiar forms can suddenly be recognized in the layered structures: striking human facial features —nose, chin, and mouth —which, in conjunction with the titles of these works, evoke a second level of association. As a result, the work uniquely oscillates between non-objectivity and biomorphism, between abstraction and materiality, between free form and figurative association.
The heavy, compact bronze takes on unexpected lightness through its multiple curves, creating an ambivalence between massiveness and elegant statics, liveliness and tranquil presence. The form appears familiar and strange at the same time: Cragg deliberately plays with the viewer's perception, opening up a broad, wide spectrum of possible associations and questioning the limits of statics: the weight is distributed in an almost irrational way and, together with the strong, sweeping curves, creates a moment of movement, a certain liveliness.
The artist's works regularly feature in highly acclaimed international exhibitions, most recently at the Orangerie, Park, and Georgium Palace in Dessau (2025), the Heidelberg Sculpture Park and the Spanish Tower Sculpture Garden on Rosenhöhe in Darmstadt (2025), the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome (2024/25), the widely discussed exhibition "Tony Cragg. Please Touch!“ at the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf (2024), at Castle Howard in Yorkshire, England (2024), and in ”Tony Cragg – Sculpture: Body and Soul" at the Albertina in Vienna (2022). [CH]
The heavy, compact bronze takes on unexpected lightness through its multiple curves, creating an ambivalence between massiveness and elegant statics, liveliness and tranquil presence. The form appears familiar and strange at the same time: Cragg deliberately plays with the viewer's perception, opening up a broad, wide spectrum of possible associations and questioning the limits of statics: the weight is distributed in an almost irrational way and, together with the strong, sweeping curves, creates a moment of movement, a certain liveliness.
The artist's works regularly feature in highly acclaimed international exhibitions, most recently at the Orangerie, Park, and Georgium Palace in Dessau (2025), the Heidelberg Sculpture Park and the Spanish Tower Sculpture Garden on Rosenhöhe in Darmstadt (2025), the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome (2024/25), the widely discussed exhibition "Tony Cragg. Please Touch!“ at the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf (2024), at Castle Howard in Yorkshire, England (2024), and in ”Tony Cragg – Sculpture: Body and Soul" at the Albertina in Vienna (2022). [CH]
125000966
Tony Cragg
Line of Thought, 2002.
Bronze with black-brown patina
Estimate:
€ 150,000 - 250,000
$ 174,000 - 290,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
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