467
PARTISAN REVIEW
bronze, of organic forms, even of figuration. In his May:June ex–
hibition at Andre Emmerich Gallery, Caro gave ample proof of
how much he now allows into his sculpture that he once might
have excluded. Caro's new work is complex and rich the way
high Baroque art is; adjectives like "sensuous," "grand," and
"full" come to mind . Perhaps a better analogy would be high
Baroque architecture or music, with their clear underpinnings of
order and harmony. Without making work that is in any way
less abstract than the work that established his reputation in the
early sixties, Caro now permits himself a sense of weight and
mass, of implied movement that evokes the body or, more accu–
rately, the feel of the body. The new works include rolling
bronze forms and steel in gorgeous "soft" configurations.
The largest work in the show, a solemn arcade of aggres–
sively crumpled steel forms, was one of the most powerful. For all
its visual lushness, it remained lucid and severe, progressing
with a steady rhythm, like the ground bass in a
Concerto grosso.
For all its large size, the piece was intimate, even better, perhaps,
as you moved along its length than from a distance, good as the
long views were. Forms opened and closed as you progressed,
and you became acutely aware of their relation to your own
body. Other works, smaller, but similar in mood, exploited the
tension between full-bodied bronze forms and uncompromising
steel enclosures.
As always, Caro's expressiveness comes from the way he
makes things touch, from his faultless sense of scale, from the
way he puts things together. Photographs tell you little about his
work. Forms flatten, eloquent junctions disappear. It's difficult,
too, to write about Caro's sculpture, since his own language is
purely sculptural, wordless. But the authoritative presence of his
work is unmistakable. Caro has grown steadily since those first
astonishing steel pieces more than twenty-five years ago . His
new works are among his best.
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