Table Piece CCLXVI
- Artist: Sir Anthony Caro
- Date: 1975
- Medium: Steel
- Dimensions: displayed: 795 x 2055 x 1250 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the sculpture “Table Piece CCLXVI” by Sir Anthony Caro. Created in 1975, it sits on a human scale: just over two metres wide, about the span of an outstretched pair of arms. Caro himself noted, “all sculpture is to do with the physical – all sculpture takes its bearings from the fact that we live inside our bodies and that our size and stretch and strength is what it is.” The piece is made of steel strips folded into ribbon‑like curves, creating a dynamic tension between the rigid material and the fluid shapes. It’s an abstract, non‑representational work with gestural, irregular forms that seem to dance across the tabletop plane. The horizontal band runs the full width, with vertical lines and a swirling band hanging above, forming a frame that invites you to step around and look from every angle. It’s a powerful reminder of how the artist’s own physical movement is inscribed in steel.
See it in person
Table Piece CCLXVI is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
