+ Expand
Notes:
Provenance:
Gifted to Peter Langan by the artist circa 1976
Peter Langan, the notorious and charismatic restauranteur, had many artists among his fashionable clientele who frequented his restaurants Odin's and later Langan's Brasserie. In 1966 Langan was the chef at Odin's and his clients there included Hockney, Bacon and Freud among other glitterati. It became common practice for these impoverished artists to pay for their dinners with their art, sometimes decorating menus, and in this way Langan accumulated a much admired collection. Caro's Cheese Trolley was made for Langan around 1976 when Langan's Brasserie first opened, co-owned by Michael Caine and Richard Shepherd. In the present work Caro has remained true to his artistic ideas current in the 1970s, fusing raw, scrap materials to form a work of art which also has a functional purpose. A wok, somewhat aptly, is welded onto the side of the work and wheels are attached to the base, allowing for mobility. The steel, while rusted and varnished in the majority of the work, is also polished in parts to provide a solid base for the cheese. An extremely unusual and unique piece, Cheese Trolley is an important work in Caro's oeuvre of socio-historic as well as artistic significance.