Turbo and Ferryman

Exhibited together, Turbo and Ferryman are two bronze works by world-renowned, contemporary sculptor Tony Cragg. Using sculpture to evoke emotion, Cragg challenges peoples’ relationships with the material world. Turbo is an irregular-shaped spherical form that rests on a tilted axis. The 5 and a half foot figure creates a sense of motion with what appears to be multiple rounded disks of a turbine engine whirling out of phase, creating two top-like shapes joined together at the center. Ferryman is an 8 foot by 5 foot biomorphic structure with several appendage-like forms. Its monumental size contradicts the gentle appearance of its perforated material. Through the generosity of the Hall Family Foundation, the sculptures were purchased in 2001 by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art from the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York.

Sculpted by British artist Tony Cragg, Turbo and Ferryman were both fabricated by the Schmäke foundry in Düsseldorf, Germany. These two abstract bronze pieces were first exhibited together in 1999 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England. The following year they made their U.S. debut in an exhibit by Public Art Fund at Central Park’s Doris Freedman Plaza in New York City, shown from May 2000 to February 2002. 

Tony Cragg (1949- ) is a world-renowned, contemporary sculptor born in Liverpool, United Kingdom. He studied the arts in London, earning a Bachelor degree from the Wimbledon School of Art in 1973 and a Masters degree from the Royal College of Art in 1977. He met his first wife while at Royal College and moved to her hometown of Wuppertal, Germany after graduation, where he has continued to live and work since. In addition to sculpting, Cragg has been a professor, most notably at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf academy of fine art in Germany, where he also served as Director. 

Featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in addition to public commissions, Cragg’s work has been displayed worldwide throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States, as well as in Brazil, Australia, and Cuba. Interested in the emotional quality of things, he uses an array of materials and objects for both their physical quality and as inspiration. His work is characterized into two categories: Early Forms and Rational Beings. Early Forms repurpose familiar objects into abstract forms that evoke a new meaning or emotional response, while Rational Beings challenge the relationship of contrasting aesthetic interpretations; Turbo and Ferryman fit the latter. 

Gallery label for Turbo

Turbo refers to an energy-generating form like a spinning top or a turbine engine. Tony Cragg explores the tilted form at rest, but its impression is one of intense dynamism. While Turbo is cast in bronze, lending it a machined quality, its form is irregular, as if comprised of discs whirling out of phase. This idiosyncratic play between randomness and logical order characterizes much of Cragg's work.

Gallery label for Ferryman 

Tony Cragg is one of Great Britain's most esteemed artists. His sculpture, Ferryman, may refer to the operator of a ferry boat, to the fluid "body" of water or to the molecular structure of matter itself. Its amorphous form extrudes and wraps in upon itself in an endless flow of energy to create a playful dialogue between interior and exterior spaces.

Cragg’s unique interpretation of the material world into abstract sculpture has earned him international recognition over the years. He has been a recipient of many awards including the esteemed Praemium Imperiale Award in Tokyo (2007) and the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Center (2017), amongst many others. He has been awarded the 1st Class Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2012) and is also a member of the British honours system as a Knight Bachelor (2016). 

Turbo, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Accessed August 29th, 2022. https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/33164/turbo.

Ferryman, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Accessed August 29th, 2022. https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/33163/ferryman?ctx=c2187173-d2d8-4d9d-bec4-ba24b22527dc&idx=0.

Turbo and Ferryman, Public Art Fund. Accessed August 29th, 2022. https://www.publicartfund.org/exhibitions/view/turbo-and-ferryman/.

Tony Cragg, Marian Goodman Gallery. Accessed August 29th, 2022. https://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/tony-cragg/.

Kellaway, Kate. Interview with Tony Cragg: ‘I’m most interested in the emotional qualities of things’, The Guardian. March 5th, 2017. Accessed August 29th, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/mar/05/tony-cragg-sculpture-interview-rare-category-objects .