NOTEWORTHY DEATH

Artist’s sculptures boosted abstract art

LONDON - British sculptor Anthony Caro, whose industrial yet playful metal creations helped abstract sculpture gain global acclaim, has died at the age of 89.

A statement released Thursday on behalf of the artist’s family said Caro died after suffering a heart attack Wednesday.

Caro was one of Britain’s best-known artists, and his large, abstract steel sculptures stand in galleries, parks and museums around the world.

Museums including Tate Britain and New York’s Museum of Modern Art have held retrospectives of his work.

Caro’s works were often made of steel - though he also used bronze, silver, wood and even paper - and made by welding together sheets, beams and other pieces of metal into bold, geometric shapes.

The sculptures were frequently painted bright red, yellow or green and placed directly on the ground, rather than on pedestals, to have a greater impact on viewers.

Caro also helped design London’s Millennium Bridge, an elegant pedestrian crossing over the River Thames that opened in 2000 - and was promptly closed because pedestrians found it wobbled alarmingly. Reopened two years later after engineering work, the “Wobbly Bridge” has become a much-loved landmark used by thousands of people each day to cross between St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern gallery.

Born near London on March 8, 1924, Caro gained an engineering degree from Cambridge University and served in the Royal Navy before studying sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools. In the 1950s, he worked as an assistant to Henry Moore, probably the greatest of 20th-century sculptors.