Renowned sculptor’s art for city
A four-tonne bronze artwork by ‘‘a modern-day Picasso’’ is coming to Christchurch for the summer.
The 5.5 metre-tall sculpture by British artist Sir Tony Cragg, called Mixed Feelings, will be on public display in the Christ’s College quadrangle from October to January as part of the Scape Public Art festival.
The artwork has been previously exhibited in London, Prague and Amsterdam.
Scape executive director Deborah McCormick said Cragg was one of the greatest artists of his generation. He was awarded a knighthood in 2016, won the prestigious Turner Prize in 1988 and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale that same year. ‘‘He is a modern-day Picasso,’’ she said. ‘‘He has the same level of importance, in my opinion, as Picasso had when he was making work. This shows that we take public art seriously in Christchurch.’’
The sculpture will be on loan and is on its way to New Zealand from the artist’s studio in the West German city of Wuppertal.
The $50,000 shipping and insurance costs for the sculpture have been funded by the The Philipp Family Foundation,
which distributes several hundred thousand dollars a year to mainly education causes in New Zealand.
The sculpture was brought to New Zealand in collaboration with Scape, the foundation and the Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland, which represents Cragg in New Zealand.
McCormick said no public money was used to bring the sculpture to Christchurch.
The sculpture is the third by a major British artist to come to Christchurch after Martin Creed’s 2015 neon artwork EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT on the side of the Christchurch Art Gallery in 2015, and Sir Antony Gormley’s two Stay sculptures in the Avon River and the Christchurch Arts Centre from 2015 and 2016.
The Scape Public Art festival will run in central Christchurch from October 6 to November 17.