An art of surprises

Sir Anthony Caro celebrated his 80th birthday last year, and this slightly belated but determinedly triumphal exhibition marks a half-century of remarkable and sustained achievement. Caro is phenomenally successful, an international figure almost as prominent as Henry Moore, and equally if not more important historically. For it was Caro who revolutionised sculpture in the early 1960s, bringing it down off its pedestal and creating a vibrant and brightly coloured language of abstract form which swept the world with its radical values, spawning a host of imitators. But the story doesn’t end there, for Caro has continued to reinvent himself as an artist, opening up his art to the widest possible inspirations, from architecture to Old Masters, still capable of springing surprises in this blasé and image-saturated society.

The Tate’s monographic exhibition (until 17 April) is probably the largest it has ever mounted, though there are only 50 exhibits. Caro has taken recently to making multiple-part sculptures, and has constructed a vast new piece especially for the Duveen Gallery, entitled ‘Millbank Steps’, which comprises four colossal ziggurats of rusted steel.