16th Sep, 2026 12:00
London | Ancient & Modern
72
⊕ ANTHONY CARO (BRITISH 1924-2013)
LEAF POOL, 2000
signed Caro and numbered 143/500 lower left
card collage
30 x 60 x 9cm (43 x 73 x 13cm framed)
Leaf Pool is the product of an unlikely but rewarding collaboration between Anthony Caro and the paper engineer David Pelham, realised between 1996 and 2000. Produced in heavyweight card rather than the welded steel for which Caro is best known, the work unfolds from the wall as it is opened, growing into a sculpture before the viewer.
Despite this novel use of media Caro is able to express the monumentality and substance of his larger metallic work, preserving the lyrical interplay of competing forms. Caro had been struck by the ingenuity of Pelham's pop-up books, recognising in the medium a means of reaching an altogether wider audience — a profound means by which he could help realise his desire to collapse the distance between art and its audience, furthering the move he made in the 1960s to dispense with sculptural plinths.
Born in New Malden in 1924, Caro trained at the Royal Academy Schools and working from a Camden Town studio for the better part of five decades. At St Martins, where he taught from 1953, he shaped an entire generation of British sculptors, including variously Philip King, Richard Deacon, Bruce McLean and Barry Flanagan. Fittingly, the years in which Leaf Pool took form also saw him collaborate with leading architect Norman Foster on the Millennium Bridge.
Sold for £650
LEAF POOL, 2000
signed Caro and numbered 143/500 lower left
card collage
30 x 60 x 9cm (43 x 73 x 13cm framed)
Leaf Pool is the product of an unlikely but rewarding collaboration between Anthony Caro and the paper engineer David Pelham, realised between 1996 and 2000. Produced in heavyweight card rather than the welded steel for which Caro is best known, the work unfolds from the wall as it is opened, growing into a sculpture before the viewer.
Despite this novel use of media Caro is able to express the monumentality and substance of his larger metallic work, preserving the lyrical interplay of competing forms. Caro had been struck by the ingenuity of Pelham's pop-up books, recognising in the medium a means of reaching an altogether wider audience — a profound means by which he could help realise his desire to collapse the distance between art and its audience, furthering the move he made in the 1960s to dispense with sculptural plinths.
Born in New Malden in 1924, Caro trained at the Royal Academy Schools and working from a Camden Town studio for the better part of five decades. At St Martins, where he taught from 1953, he shaped an entire generation of British sculptors, including variously Philip King, Richard Deacon, Bruce McLean and Barry Flanagan. Fittingly, the years in which Leaf Pool took form also saw him collaborate with leading architect Norman Foster on the Millennium Bridge.
Auction: London | Ancient & Modern, 16th Sep, 2026
London is a city which has had a greater impact on culture around the world than almost any other, and it has never been more important than now to shine a light on its remarkable citizens and history. From Magna Carta to the television London has, again and again, been the source from which progress has radiated. The present sale takes us from a medieval spur found under Cannon Street station, to a medal minted to commemorate the Millennium, from prints and paintings, to clocks and pistols. This sale is a sensational opportunity to acquire a small piece of this incomparable place. Olympia is a proudly London-based auction house and we are thrilled to be offering the inaugural instalment of this sale.
Viewing
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 13th September: 12pm to 4pm
Monday 14th September: 10am to 8.00pm (Drinks from 5pm)
Tuesday 15th September: 10am to 5pm
