Criss Cross Flats
Sir Anthony Caro accepted an invitation from York University during the 1973 – 74 academic year to work as an artist-in-residence. This invitation subsequently led to a period of intense work by Caro and his assistants at York Steel, where many works were cut and created during the spring of 1974. Over the next year, 35 works were fabricated, assembled, reworked, and finished on York’s campus.
Caro’s process of welding large sheets of raw steel and prefabricated fragments allows the nature of the materials and fabrication techniques to guide the elements of composition. Ignoring the tradition of the “pedestal,” Caro uses the ground as his base to more intimately connect the spectator with sculpture. Although Crisscross Flats is a three-dimensional sculpture, the flatness of the sheets of steel used to construct the piece calls upon the two-dimensional aspect of modernist painting.
Crisscross Flats was donated by the artist to the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1976 in recognition of the cooperation they provided for the 1974 sculpture project.