Tony Cragg: Infinite forme e bellissime
“Art is the only discipline that uses matter and materials in a non-utilitarian way, solely to create new forms, new ideas, new emotions.” T. Cragg
A stone's throw from Roma Termini, one of Italy’s busiest train stations, lies the Terme di Diocleziano (Baths of Diocletian), where towering brick walls and arched openings frame a breathtaking sight. The sheer scale of the ancient ruins is staggering—weathered surfaces bear the marks of centuries, and our footsteps echo in the cool air, as if the space itself is listening. Yet among these remnants of Roman ingenuity, Tony Cragg’s sculptures stand like curious visitors from another time. Their fluid, organic forms create a striking contrast, inviting us to look closer. It’s fascinating that in a city as old as Rome, contemporary art doesn’t just exist but thrives, sparking dynamic and unexpected dialogues between past and present.
The exhibition, Infinite Forme e Bellissime—curated by Stéphane Verger and Sergio Risaliti—presents 18 of Cragg’s sculptures from the past two decades, set against the stunning backdrop of the Great Halls of the Baths of Diocletian. His fluid, organic forms echo natural patterns—ocean waves, plant structures, or spiraling shells—while their varied materials, from bronze and wood to fiberglass and steel, engage in a tactile dialogue with the brick walls and black-and-white mosaic floors, weaving past and present together.
The exhibition’s title, Infinite Forme e Bellissime, takes inspiration from Charles Darwin’s closing words in On the Origin of Species: “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.”
This idea is at the heart of the show. It reflects Cragg’s deep fascination with the endless variety of forms found in nature—from the tiniest microorganisms to vast cosmic structures. He sees manmade objects as “fossilized keys to a past time which is our present,” suggesting that even the most ordinary things we create will one day become relics, carrying traces of our existence into the future. It also speaks to that feeling of wonder when we stop to truly observe the world around us. The exhibition invites us into this space of creativity, where nature and art, organic and digital, ancient and modern, all blend together. Whether drawn from the crystalline structures of minerals, the patterns of living organisms, or even the possibilities of digital design, Cragg’s work bridges disciplines—archaeology, geology, art history, and biology—showing how interconnected they really are.