Buchmann Box

Tony Cragg (*1949) says that the objects that we produce in our society are
usually made up of very basic geometric forms, such as areas, right angles,
simple curves, circles. We use these to construct a utilitarian world that is
defined by its relative simplicity and lack of variety in shape. However, in the
material we see “only the tip of the iceberg. We find ourselves between the
moment where we have a solved, boring, and familiar form, which does not
challenge us much, and the possibility that the material becomes very complex
and almost chaotic. … A square meter of forest floor has more forms than in the
whole city here.“1
Waldzimmer reveals Tony Cragg’s interest in the natural world with its complex
organic shapes on the one hand, and technology, science and abstraction on the
other. Views of a dense forest have been captured on paper in multiple
transparent colours in several layers using limestone printing. The motifs are
based on a binary system using the two digits one and zero.
Although best known for his sculptures, Tony Cragg also regularly produces
drawings and prints. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he created his first
print portfolios, including works such as Laboratory Still Life (aquatint,
1988), Fruit Juice Bottles (aquatint, 1990), Die 1. Ära (etching, 1991).
Waldzimmer is the largest and most complex lithographic portfolio to date.
1 A conversation between Tony Cragg and André Buchmann, Tony Cragg catalogue,
Buchmann Galerie Berlin, 2011, p. 42