A new piece by British sculptor Tony Cragg entitled "Runner" awaits art enthusiasts in front of one of Türkiye's largest museums, Istanbul Modern, as it prepares to display new artworks at its new building in Karaköy, bearing the signature of Italian architect Renzo Piano.
The six-meter-tall (nearly 20-foot-tall) work by Cragg, one of the most original and innovative artists in contemporary sculpture, has been placed at the entrance platform of the museum. The masterpiece by Cragg is also, perhaps surprisingly, among the most impressive and exhilarating yet to be on view.
Pushing the limits of ideas and forms, Cragg's sculptures seek new relations between people and the material world. His former works revolve around the taxonomical understanding of the world as he considers man-made objects as fossils. The outlines of his works usually form a blurred line between man-made and natural landscapes with limitless materials.
In that sense, the sculptor always manages to display how the sculpture as a study of different materials and forms affects and forms our ideas and emotions. Cragg’s works are also featured in the collections of the world’s leading museums and art institutions. The artist has loaned his sculpture “Runner” to Istanbul Modern museum on a long-term basis.
As one of the world's most distinguished contemporary sculptors, drawing on both the natural world and industrial systems to create new forms of sculptural language, Cragg's works have been displayed in many important solo exhibitions, most recently at the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria in 2022, the Museo del Vetro in Venice, Italy in 2021 and the Boboli Gardens in Florence, Italy in 2019.
Specifically in "Runner," Cragg wants to “show the inner life under a rigid surface, making that energy and motion perceivable.”
Istanbul Modern hosted Cragg once before in 2018 at the museum's temporary space in Beyoğlu. Titled “Human Nature,” the exhibition offered visitors a multi-layered selection of the artist’s works, renowned for redefining sculpture by pushing the boundaries of form, color and material.
The works that dominate here are twisty with rippling forms, making the "motion perceivable." Cragg always takes it a step well beyond that, both to other sources for shapes and by putting these shapes through more extreme transformations.
Oya Eczacıbaşı, chair of the board of directors of Istanbul Modern, said: “We are honored to receive this sculpture as a long-term loan ahead of the opening of our museum’s new building. I believe that this sculpture by Cragg, an artist whose works attract curiosity and interest from every generation, will become one of the symbols of Istanbul Modern’s new building.”
The new museum building is located in a prominent location directly adjacent to the Bosporus and will include galleries for the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, a library, classroom spaces, a cinema and a restaurant. The design of the new building was inspired by the Bosporus with its glittering waters and light reflections.
