Sir Tony Cragg has been announced as the recipient of the 2026 European Culture Prize, one of Europe’s notable cultural honours, recognising a career that has profoundly influenced the development of contemporary sculpture. The award will be presented at a ceremony at Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw on 4 September 2026.
For more than five decades, Cragg has challenged conventional ideas of what sculpture can be and how we encounter it. His practice is characterised by an intense curiosity about materials and the physical world, with works that transform wood, stone, bronze, steel and other materials into complex explorations of volume, movement and form. Rather than treating materials simply as a means to an end, Cragg allows their physical properties and histories to inform the development of each work.
The European Culture Prize, presented by the European Cultural Forum, has recognised leading figures across the arts and wider cultural sphere since 2012.
