Tony Cragg's Sculptures and Drawings at Museo Novecento, Florence

The Museo Novecento in Florence presents a comprehensive exhibition of British sculptor Tony Cragg (born Liverpool, 1949), featuring over one hundred drawings and sculptures, including three monumental works in the cloister and one in the Cortile degli Uomini of the Istituto degli Innocenti. A reproduction of Cragg's studio in Wuppertal, Germany—a creative citadel where technicians and artisans experiment with new materials—is also on display. Cragg's practice merges art and science, drawing inspiration from nature, organic compositions, crystalline mineral structures, and geology. His works appear to move and transform, as exemplified by SKULL (2016), a white piece that seems to scream and seek attention. The sculptures, such as Versus, Masks, and Spring, change form depending on the viewer's perspective, blending order, disorder, stillness, and motion into a surreal equilibrium. Shadows cast by artificial or natural light become extensions of the works, granting them dual identity and meaning. Drawings are presented as expressive tools akin to biological diagrams, essential to understanding Cragg's creative process. The exhibition runs at Museo Novecento, Florence.