Sir Anthony Caro was an English sculptor who played a pivotal role in the development of sculpture in the twentieth century. Born in 1924, Caro studied sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and he later became an assistant to Henry Moore. He came to prominence after his 1963 exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery, where he exhibited large abstract sculptures. By placing these sculptures directly on the ground, Caro signalled a radical departure from traditional means of display.
Caro went on to teach at Saint Martin's School of Art from 1953 to 1981 and continued to work with a vast range of materials including bronze, silver, lead, stonewear, wood, and paper. He has had major retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Mercati di Traiano in Rome; the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; Tate Britain in London; and three museums in Pas-de-Calais, France. He was knighted in 1987 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Sculpture in 1997, as well as the Order of Merit in 2000.
On 23 October 2013, Caro died of a heart attack at the age of 89.