Exhibitions: Tony Cragg: Menschenmenge

Browse by Decade

2010s	2000s	1990s
1980s	1970s	1960s
1950s	1940s	1930s
1920s	1910s	1900s
1890s	1840s

Want to add this object to a set? Please join the Posse, or log in.

Tony Cragg: Menschenmenge

Dates: March 5, 1986 through April 14, 1986
Collections: Contemporary Art

Press Releases

... more

Spring 1986: A large wall installation by British sculptor Tony Cragg will be on view in The Brooklyn Museum’s Grand Lobby from March 5 to April 14, 1986. Entitled Menschenmenge, German for “human quantity” or “crowd,” the work portrays a group of figures made of vividly colored plastic shards found by the artist. The installation will stretch the sixty-foot width of the lobby’s main wall.

Cragg, who was born in Liverpool in 1949 and graduated from London’s Royal College of Art in 1977, now lives in Wuppertal, West Germany. He is one of several British sculptors who have received international recognition in the 1980s for sculpture made with discarded materials. Applying a quirky intelligence to the reorganization of the products of industrial society, these artists achieve eccentric and intriguing sculptural forms.

In Menschenmenge, the plastic shards form a lively abstract pattern as well as portraying over two dozen different figures. Rather than anonymous shapes in a crowd, these figures are individuals distinguished by differences in size and silhouette. Viewers entering the lobby will become emotionally involved with the work as they face a wall of people solemnly conforming to a uniform line. Although the physicality of the shards establishes a sculptural quality for the installation, the perception of the pieces is nevertheless determined by a pictorial boundary. Cragg employs such contradictions--including the plastic functioning as pigment would in a painting--to engage the viewer’s thoughts as well as their perceptual processes.

The Brooklyn Museum’s installation of Menschenmenge, which was first exhibited in Cologne, West Germany, in 1984, will be the first of three exhibitions of Cragg’s art in the United States this year. His work will also be on view at the Marion Goodman Gallery in New York and at University Art Museum in Berkeley, California. This exhibition is made possible, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1971 - 1988. 1986, 016. View Original

Separate each tag with a space: painting portrait.

Or join words together in one tag by using double quotes: "Brooklyn Museum."

Recently Tagged Exhibitions

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/www/default/views/opencollection/_tags_list.php on line 15

Recent Comments

"Hi Aimee, I think you mean Oreet Ashery? More information can be found in her profile on the Feminist Art Base: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/oreet_ashery.php?i=266"
By shelley

"Hi, I am trying to find the name of the artist who took and is in the photograph that follows- http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/exhibitions/664/Global_Feminisms_Remix/image/216/Global_Feminisms_Remix._%7C08032007_-_03032008%7C._Installation_view. I believe the artist takes pictures of herself dressed as a man but then exposes her femaleness, as in the photo of her dressed as an Ascetic Jew exposing her breast. Can you help me find her information? Thanks in advance- Aimee Record"
By Aimee Record

"For more information on Louis Schanker and the New York Art Scene of the mid 1900's go to http://www.LouisSchanker.info "
By Lou Siegel

January 17, 1986: From Indian Earth: 4,000 Years of Terracotta Art
January 19, 1986: Brooklyn '86
February 7, 1986: National Print Exhibition, 24th Biennial: Public and Private: American Prints Today
February 15, 1986: Alex Hillman Family Foundation Collection: French Art of the 19th & 20th Centuries
March 5, 1986: Tony Cragg: Menschenmenge
March 6, 1986: Impressionist Prints from the Collection of The Brooklyn Museum
March 9, 1986: Salute to Brooklyn's Creative Youth
March 13, 1986: From Courbet to Cezanne: A New 19th Century
April 2, 1986: Curator's Choice: The Arts of Central Africa

Join the posse or log in to work with our collections. Your tags, comments and favorites will display with your attribution.

The Brooklyn Museum Archives maintains a collection of historical press releases. Many of these have been scanned and made available on our Web site. The releases range from brief announcements to extensive articles; images of the original releases have been included for your reference. Please note that all the original typographical elements, including occasional errors, have been retained. Releases may also contain errors as a result of the scanning process. We welcome your feedback about corrections.

For select exhibitions, we have made available some or all of the informative text panels written by the curator or organizer. Called "didactics," these panels are presented to the public during the exhibition's run, and we reproduce them here for your reference and archival interest. Please note that any illustrations on the original didactics have not been retained, and that the text may contain errors as a result of the scanning process. We welcome your feedback about corrections.

For select exhibitions, we have made available some or all of the objects from the Brooklyn Museum collection that were in the installation. These objects are listed here for your reference and archival interest, but the list may be incomplete and does not contain objects owned by other institutions or lenders.

This section utilizes the New York Times API in order to display related materials in New York Times publications.

Exhibitions: Tony Cragg: Menschenmenge

Login to play

Login with Google ID