Anish Kapoor
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Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian
sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in
Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school
The Doon School The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a selective all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer from Calcutta, who prevised a school mod ...
, before moving to the UK to begin his art training at
Hornsey College of Art Hornsey College of Art (a.k.a. Hornsey School of Art) was a college in Crouch End in the London Borough of Haringey, England. The HCA was "an iconic British art institution, renowned for its experimental and progressive approach to art and design ...
and, later, Chelsea School of Art and Design. His notable public sculptures include ''
Cloud Gate ''Cloud Gate'' is a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, that is the centerpiece of AT&T Plaza at Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Pa ...
'' (2006, also known as "The Bean") in Chicago's
Millennium Park Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in 2004 and intended to celebrate the third millennium, is a prominent civic center nea ...
; ''
Sky Mirror ''Sky Mirror'' is a public sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor. Commissioned by the Nottingham Playhouse, it is installed outside the theatre in Wellington Circus, Nottingham, England. ''Sky Mirror'' is a -wide concave dish of polished stainle ...
'', exhibited at the
Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
in New York City in 2006 and Kensington Gardens in London in 2010; ''
Temenos A ''temenos'' ( Greek: ; plural: , ''temenē''). is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, such as a sanctuary, holy gr ...
'', at Middlehaven,
Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...
; ''Leviathan'', at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2011; and '' ArcelorMittal Orbit'', commissioned as a permanent artwork for London's
Olympic Park An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...
and completed in 2012. In 2017, Kapoor designed the statuette for the
2018 Brit Awards Brit Awards 2018 was the 38th edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music show, the Brit Awards. It was held on the 21st February 2018 at the O2 Arena in London, with Jack Whitehall as the host. The Brit Award statuette desig ...
. An image of Kapoor features in the British cultural icons section of the newly designed British passport in 2015. In 2016, he was announced as a recipient of the
LennonOno Grant for Peace The LennonOno Grant for Peace is an award presented by artist and peace activist Yoko Ono. The grant, a sum of $50,000, has been awarded biennially to people and organisations chosen by Ono herself since 2002, in honour of Ono's late husband John L ...
. Kapoor has received several distinctions and prizes, such as the Premio Duemila Prize at the XLIV
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
in 1990, the
Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...
in 1991, the Unilever Commission for the Turbine Hall at
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
, the
Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...
by the
Indian government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...
in 2012, a
knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
in the
2013 Birthday Honours The 2013 Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of ...
for services to visual arts, an honorary doctorate degree from the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
in 2014. and the 2017
Genesis Prize The Genesis Prize ( he, פרס בראשית) is a $1 million annual prize awarded to Jewish people who have achieved significant professional success, in recognition of their accomplishments, contributions to humanity, and commitment to Jewish val ...
for achievement as a
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
person.


Early life and education

Anish Mikhail Kapoor was born in
Mumbai, India Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
, to an
Iraqi Jewish The history of the Jews in Iraq ( he, יְהוּדִים בָּבְלִים, ', ; ar, اليهود العراقيون, ) is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BC. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and mos ...
mother and an
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
Punjabi Hindu Punjabi Hindus are adherents of Hinduism who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis. While Punjabi Hindus are mostly found in the Indian state of Punjab today, many have ancestry from the greater Punjab regio ...
father. His maternal grandfather served as
cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...
of the synagogue in
Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...
. At the time,
Baghdadi Jews The former communities of Jewish migrants and their descendants from Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East are traditionally called Baghdadi Jews or Iraqi Jews. They settled primarily in the ports and along the trade routes around the Indian ...
constituted the majority of the Jewish community in Mumbai. His father was a hydrographer and applied physicist who served in the
Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates si ...
. Kapoor is the brother of
Ilan Kapoor Ilan Kapoor (born 1959) is a professor of Critical Development Studies at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is an influential postcolonial scholar, considered one of the first to bring b ...
, a professor at
York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...
,
Toronto, Canada Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. Kapoor attended
The Doon School The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a selective all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer from Calcutta, who prevised a school mod ...
, an all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, India. In 1971 he moved to
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
with one of his two brothers, initially living on a kibbutz.Jackie Wullschlager (5 May 2012)
Lunch with the FT: Anish Kapoor
''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
''.
He began to study electrical engineering, but had trouble with mathematics and quit after six months. In Israel, he decided to become an artist. In 1973, he left for Britain to attend
Hornsey College of Art Hornsey College of Art (a.k.a. Hornsey School of Art) was a college in Crouch End in the London Borough of Haringey, England. The HCA was "an iconic British art institution, renowned for its experimental and progressive approach to art and design ...
and Chelsea School of Art and Design. There he found a role model in
Paul Neagu Paul Neagu (1938-2004) was a Romanian artist living in England who worked in diverse media such as drawing, sculpture, performance art and watercolor. He died on 16 June 2004 in London. His influences included Cubism, Marcel Duchamp, Constantin ...
, an artist who provided a meaning to what he was doing. Kapoor went on to teach at
Wolverhampton Polytechnic The University of Wolverhampton is a public university located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in England. The roots of the university lie in the Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mech ...
in 1979 and in 1982 was Artist in Residence at the
Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...
, Liverpool. He has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s.


Career

Kapoor became known in the 1980s for his geometric or biomorphic sculptures using simple materials such as
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
,
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
,
marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
, pigment and
plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...
.Anish Kapoor: ''Sky Mirror'', 19 September – 27 October 2006
Public Art Fund.
These early sculptures are frequently simple, curved forms, usually monochromatic and brightly coloured, using powder
pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compou ...
to define and permeate the form. He has said of the sculptures "While making the pigment pieces, it occurred to me that they all form themselves out of each other. So I decided to give them a generic title, ''A Thousand Names'', implying infinity, a thousand being a symbolic number. The powder works sat on the floor or projected from the wall. The powder on the floor defines the surface of the floor and the objects appear to be partially submerged, like icebergs. That seems to fit inside the idea of something being partially there..."Kapoor, Anish. "Anish Kapoor." "
BOMB Magazine ''Bomb'' (stylized in all caps as ''BOMB'') is an American arts magazine edited by artists and writers, published quarterly in print and daily online. It is composed primarily of interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplin ...
" Spring 1990, Retrieved 16 April 2012.
Such use of pigment characterised his first high-profile exhibit as part of the ''New Sculpture'' exhibition at the
Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the R ...
London in 1978. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Kapoor was acclaimed for his explorations of matter and non-matter, specifically evoking the void in both free-standing sculptural works and ambitious installations. Many of his sculptures seem to recede into the distance, disappear into the ground or distort the space around them. In 1987, he began working in stone. His later stone works are made of solid, quarried stone, many of which have carved apertures and cavities, often alluding to, and playing with dualities (earth-sky, matter-spirit, lightness-darkness, visible-invisible, conscious-unconscious, male-female, and body-mind). "In the end, I’m talking about myself. And thinking about making nothing, which I see as a void. But then that’s something, even though it really is nothing." Since 1995, he has worked with the highly reflective surface of polished stainless steel. These works are mirror-like, reflecting or distorting the viewer and surroundings. Over the course of the following decade Kapoor's sculptures ventured into more ambitious manipulations of form and space. He produced a number of large works, including ''Taratantara ''(1999), a 35-metre-high piece which was installed in the Baltic Flour Mills in Gateshead, England, prior to the renovation beginning there which turned the structure into the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art; and ''
Marsyas In Greek mythology, the satyr Marsyas (; grc-gre, Μαρσύας) is a central figure in two stories involving music: in one, he picked up the double oboe ('' aulos'') that had been abandoned by Athena and played it; in the other, he challenged ...
'' (2002), a large work consisting of three steel rings joined by a single span of PVC membrane that reached end to end of the Turbine Hall of
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
. Kapoor's ''Eye in Stone'' (Norwegian: ''Øye i stein'') is permanently placed at the shore of the
fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Förden and East Jutland Fjorde, Germany, ...
in
Lødingen Lødingen ( sme, Lodegat) is a municipality in Nordland county in Norway. Lødingen is located on the southeastern corner of the island of Hinnøya, and is part of the traditional district of Ofoten. The administrative centre of the municipali ...
in northern Norway as part of
Artscape Nordland Artscape Nordland (''Skulpturlandskap Nordland'') is an international art project that aims to bring art to people where they live, art museums being few and far apart in the sparsely populated county of Nordland. The project currently includes 33 ...
. In 2000, one of Kapoor's works, ''Parabolic Waters'', consisting of rapidly rotating coloured water, was shown outside the Millennium Dome in London. The use of red
wax Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to giv ...
is also part of his repertoire, evocative of flesh, blood, and transfiguration. In 2007, he showed ''Svayambh'' (which translated from
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
means "self-generated"), a 1.5-metre block of red wax that moved on rails through the Nantes Musée des Beaux-Arts as part of the Biennale estuaire; this piece was shown again in a major show at the Haus der Kunst in Munich and in 2009 at the Royal Academy in London. Some of Kapoor's work blurs the boundaries between architecture and art. In 2008, Kapoor created ''Memory'' in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
and New York for the Guggenheim Foundation, his first piece in
Cor-Ten Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting, and form a stable ru ...
, which is formulated to produce a protective coating of rust. Weighing 24 tons and made up of 156 parts, it calls to mind
Richard Serra Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, Urban area, urban, and Architecture, architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material q ...
's huge, rusty steel works, which also invite viewers into perceptually confounding interiors. In 2009, Kapoor became the first Guest Artistic Director of
Brighton Festival Brighton Festival is a large, annual, curated multi-arts festival in England. It includes music, theatre, dance, circus, art, film, literature, debate, outdoor and family events, and takes place in venues in the city of Brighton and Hove in Engla ...
. Kapoor installed four sculptures during the festival: ''
Sky Mirror ''Sky Mirror'' is a public sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor. Commissioned by the Nottingham Playhouse, it is installed outside the theatre in Wellington Circus, Nottingham, England. ''Sky Mirror'' is a -wide concave dish of polished stainle ...
'' at
Brighton Pavilion The Royal Pavilion, and surrounding gardens, also known as the Brighton Pavilion, is a Grade I listed former royal residence located in Brighton, England. Beginning in 1787, it was built in three stages as a seaside retreat for George, Prin ...
gardens; ''C-Curve'' at The Chattri, '' Blood Relations'' (a collaboration with author
Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and We ...
); and ''1000 Names'', both at the Fabrica Gallery. He also created a large site-specific work titled ''The Dismemberment of Jeanne d’Arc'' and a performance-based installation: ''Imagined Monochrome''. The public response was so overwhelming that police had to re-divert traffic around ''C Curve'' at the Chattri and exercise crowd control. In September 2009, Kapoor was the first living artist to have a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. As well as surveying his career to date, the show also included new works. On display were ''Non-Object'' mirror works, cement sculptures previously unseen, and ''Shooting into the Corner'', a cannon that fires pellets of wax into the corner of the gallery. Previously shown at MAK, Vienna, in January 2009, it is a work with dramatic presence and associations and also continues Kapoor's interest in the self-made object, as the wax builds up on the walls and floor of the gallery the work slowly oozes out its form. In early 2011, Kapoor's work, ''Leviathan'', was the annual ''Monumenta'' installation for the Grand Palais in Paris. Kapoor described the work as: "A single object, a single form, a single colour...My ambition is to create a space with in a space that responds to the height and luminosity of the Nave at the Grand Palais. Visitors will be invited to walk inside the work, to immerse themselves in colour, and it will, I hope, be a contemplative and poetic experience." In 2011, Kapoor exhibited ''Dirty Corner'' at the Fabbrica del Vapore in
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. Having fully occupied the site's "cathedral" space, the work consists of a huge steel volume, 60 metres long and 8 metres high, that visitors enter. Inside, they gradually lose their perception of space, as it gets progressively darker and darker until there is no light, forcing people to use their other senses to guide them through the space. The entrance of the tunnel is goblet-shaped, featuring an interior and exterior surface that is circular, making minimal contact with the ground. Over the course of the exhibition, the work was progressively covered by some 160 cubic metres of earth by a large mechanical device, forming a sharp mountain of dirt which the tunnel appears to be running through. In 2016, his art exposition in MUAC (
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
) was a success, with literary contributions from Catherine Lampert, Cecilia Delgado, and Mexican writer Pablo Soler Frost. Kapoor sued the National Rifle Association (NRA) in 2018. The gun lobby group had, without the sculptor's consent, used a filmed image of ''Cloud Gate'' in an approximately one-minute-long promotional video called "The Violence of Lies". The suit was ultimately
settled out of court In law, a settlement is a resolution between disputing parties about a legal case, reached either before or after court action begins. A collective settlement is a settlement of multiple similar legal cases. The term also has other meanings in t ...
. Kapoor reported that the settlement included the removal of his work from the NRA's film, saying "They have now complied with our demand to remove the unauthorized image of my sculpture ''Cloud Gate'' from their abhorrent video, which seeks to promote fear, hostility, and division in American society".


Public commissions

Kapoor's earliest public commissions include the ''Cast Iron Mountain'' at the Tachikawa Art Project in Japan, as well as an untitled 1995 piece installed at Toronto's
Simcoe Place Simcoe Place is an office building and shopping centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The tower 148 metres (486 feet) with 33 floors. It was completed by architects Carlos A Ott and NORR in 1995. The late-Modernist building was built by develop ...
resembling mountain peaks. In 2001, ''
Sky Mirror ''Sky Mirror'' is a public sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor. Commissioned by the Nottingham Playhouse, it is installed outside the theatre in Wellington Circus, Nottingham, England. ''Sky Mirror'' is a -wide concave dish of polished stainle ...
'', a large mirror piece that reflects the sky and surroundings, was commissioned for a site outside the Nottingham Playhouse. Since 2006, ''
Cloud Gate ''Cloud Gate'' is a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, that is the centerpiece of AT&T Plaza at Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Pa ...
'', a 110-
ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...
stainless steel sculpture with a mirror finish, has been permanently installed in
Millennium Park Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in 2004 and intended to celebrate the third millennium, is a prominent civic center nea ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
. Viewers are able to walk beneath the sculpture and look up into an " omphalos" or navel above them. In the autumn of 2006, a second 10-metre ''
Sky Mirror ''Sky Mirror'' is a public sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor. Commissioned by the Nottingham Playhouse, it is installed outside the theatre in Wellington Circus, Nottingham, England. ''Sky Mirror'' is a -wide concave dish of polished stainle ...
'', was installed at
Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
, New York City. This work was later exhibited in Kensington Gardens in 2010 as part of the show ''Turning the World Upside Down'', along with three other major mirror works. In 2009, Kapoor created the permanent, site-specific work ''Earth Cinema'' for Pollino National Park, the largest national park in Italy, as part of the project ''ArtePollino – Another South''. Kapoor's work, ''Cinema di Terra'' (''Earth Cinema''), is a 45m long, 3m wide and 7m deep cut into the landscape made from concrete and earth. People can enter from both sides and walk along it, viewing the earth void within. ''Cinema di Terra'' officially opened to public in September 2009. Kapoor was also commissioned by
Tees Valley Regeneration Tees Valley Regeneration was an urban regeneration company covering the Tees Valley area of North East England and at one time was the largest urban development agency in England. The headquarters were at Cavendish House, Teesdale Business Park ...
(TVR) to produce five pieces of public art, collectively known as the ''
Tees Valley Giants The Tees Valley Giants was intended as a £15 million series of five art installations by sculptor Anish Kapoor and structural designer Cecil Balmond. The artwork was planned to be created in the towns of Darlington, Hartlepool, Middles ...
''. The first of these sculptures, ''Tememos'', was unveiled to the public in June 2010. ''Temenos'' stands 50 metres high and is 110 metres in length. A steel wire mesh pulled taut between two enormous steel hoops, it remains an ethereal and an uncertain form despite its colossal scale. In 2010, ''Turning the World Upside Down, Jerusalem'' was commissioned and installed at the Israel Museum in
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. The sculpture is described as a "16-foot tall polished-steel hourglass" and it "reflects and reverses the Jerusalem sky and the museum's landscape, a likely reference to the city's duality of celestial and earthly, holy and profane". The Greater London Authority selected Kapoor's ''Orbit'' sculpture from a shortlist of five artists as the permanent artwork for the Olympic Park of the 2012 Olympic Games. At 115 metres tall, ''Orbit'' is the tallest sculpture in the UK. When asked if engagement with people and places is the key to successful public art, Kapoor said:


Architectural projects

Throughout his career, Kapoor has worked extensively with architects and engineers. He says this body of work is neither pure sculpture nor pure architecture. His notable architectural projects include: * ''Ark Nova'', an inflatable concert hall that will travel around the earthquake struck regions of Japan, designed in collaboration with architect
Arata Isozaki Arata Isozaki (磯崎 新, ''Isozaki Arata''; born 23 July 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer, and theorist from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019. Biography Isozaki was ...
. * ''Orbit'', the permanent artwork for London’s Olympic Park, in collaboration with engineer
Cecil Balmond Cecil Balmond OBE is a Sri Lankan–British designer, artist, and writer. In 1968 Balmond joined Ove Arup & Partners, leading him to become deputy chairman. In 2000 he founded design and research group, the AGU (Advanced Geometry Unit). He cu ...
. * ''Temenos'' the first work of the ''
Tees Valley Giants The Tees Valley Giants was intended as a £15 million series of five art installations by sculptor Anish Kapoor and structural designer Cecil Balmond. The artwork was planned to be created in the towns of Darlington, Hartlepool, Middles ...
'', the world's five largest sculptures, in collaboration with
Cecil Balmond Cecil Balmond OBE is a Sri Lankan–British designer, artist, and writer. In 1968 Balmond joined Ove Arup & Partners, leading him to become deputy chairman. In 2000 he founded design and research group, the AGU (Advanced Geometry Unit). He cu ...
. Temenos is situated in Middlehaven Dock, Middlesbrough. *''Dismemberment Site 1'', installed in New Zealand at the Gibbs Farm sculpture park, owned by New Zealand businessman and art patron
Alan Gibbs Alan Gibbs (born 1939) is a New Zealand-born businessman, entrepreneur and art collector. After a successful business career in New Zealand, which made him one of that country's wealthiest individuals, he relocated to London in 1999. He retains ...
. * 56 Leonard Street, New York, in collaboration with architects
Herzog and de Meuron Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd.,
" Herzog & de Meuron. Retrieved on 11 October 2012. "Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. R ...
. * Two subway stations in
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
at Monte San Angelo and Triano in collaboration with
Future Systems Future Systems was a London-based architectural and design practice, formerly headed by Directors Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete. Future Systems was founded by Kaplický and David Nixon after working with Denys Lasdun, Norman Foster, Renzo ...
. * ''Taratantara'' (1999–2000) was installed at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead and later at Piazza Plebiscito, Naples. * An unrealised project for the Millennium Dome, London, (1995) in collaboration with Philip Gumuchdjian. * Building for a Void, created for Expo '92,
Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
, in collaboration with David Connor. Of his vision for the Cumana station in Monte Sant'Angelo, Naples, Italy under construction (), Kapoor has said: '


Working with text

In a collaboration with author
Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and We ...
, Kapoor conceived a sculpture consisting of two bronze boxes conjoined with red wax and inscribed around the outside with the first two paragraphs of Rushdie's text; "Blood Relations" or an "Interrogation of the Arabian Nights" in 2006.


Stage design

Kapoor has designed
stage set Set construction is the process undertaken by a construction manager to build full-scale scenery, as specified by a production designer or art director working in collaboration with the director of a production to create a set for a theatric ...
s including for; the opera ''
Idomeneo ' (Italian for '' Idomeneus, King of Crete, or, Ilia and Idamante''; usually referred to simply as ''Idomeneo'', K. 366) is an Italian language opera seria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a Frenc ...
'' at Glyndebourne in 2003; '' Pelléas et Mélisande'',
La Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (french: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, italic=no, ; nl, Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, italic=no; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National O ...
in Brussels, and a dance-theatre piece called ''in-i'' with Akram Khan and
Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress and dancer. She has appeared in more than sixty feature films and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Silver Bear, ...
at the National Theatre in London.


Anish Kapoor Foundation

The Anish Kapoor Foundation was founded as a charity in 2017, registered in London. In early 2021, the Venice city council approved construction plans for the foundation to convert the
Palazzo Priuli Manfrin The Palazzo Manfrin Venier, once known as the Palazzo Priuli a Cannaregio or Palazzo Priuli Manfrin, is a Baroque-style palace located facing the Cannaregio Canal in the sestiere of Cannaregio of Venice, Italy. It stands to the left of the Palaz ...
into an exhibition venue, artist studio and repository for a number of the artist's works from the foundation's collection.Kabir Jhala (30 July 2021)
Anish Kapoor is converting a vast, crumbling Venetian palace into his permanent exhibition space and workshop
''
The Art Newspaper ''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments ...
''.
The project will be led by architecture firms FWR Associati of Venice and Studio Una of Hamburg.


Vantablack controversy

In 2014 Kapoor began working with
Vantablack Vantablack is a brand name for a class of super-black coatings with total hemispherical reflectances (THR) below 1.5% in the visible spectrum. The coatings were invented by Ben Jensen, who first publicly unveiled them in July 2014, and commerci ...
, a substance thought to be one of the least reflective substances known. Vantablack S-VIS, a sprayable paint which uses randomly aligned carbon nanotubes and only has high absorption in the
visible light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 te ...
band, also called the "blackest black" colour, has been exclusively licensed to Anish Kapoor's studio for artistic use. His exclusive license to the material has been criticized in the art world, but he has defended the agreement, saying: "Why exclusive? Because it's a collaboration, because I am wanting to push them to a certain use for it. I've collaborated with people who make things out of stainless steel for years and that's exclusive." Artists like
Christian Furr Christian Furr (born 1966, Heswall, Wirral, England) is an English painter. In 1995 he was commissioned to paint Queen Elizabeth II. Education Furr was educated at Ladymount Primary School, Heswall and St Anselm's College, Birkenhead. He lat ...
and Stuart Semple have criticised Kapoor for what they perceive as an appropriation of a unique material, to the exclusion of others. In retaliation, Semple developed a pigment called the "pinkest pink" and specifically made it available to everyone except Anish Kapoor and anyone affiliated with him. He later stated that the move was itself intended as something like
performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
and that he did not anticipate the amount of attention it received. In December 2016, Kapoor obtained the pigment and posted an image on Instagram of his extended
middle finger The middle finger, long finger, second finger, third finger, toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is also calle ...
which had been dipped in Semple's pink. Semple also developed more products such as "Black 2.0" and "Black 3.0", which to the human eye look nearly identical to Vantablack despite being acrylic, and "Diamond Dust", an extremely reflective glitter made of glass shards, all of which were released with the same restriction against Kapoor as the "pinkest pink".


Exhibitions

Kapoor initially began exhibiting as part of
New British Sculpture New British Sculpture is the name given to the work of a group of artists, sculptors and installation artists who began to exhibit together in London, England, in the early 1980s, including Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Shirazeh Houshiary, and Ri ...
art scene, along with fellow British sculptors
Tony Cragg Sir Anthony Douglas Cragg (born Liverpool 9 April 1949) is an Anglo-German sculptor, resident in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977. Early life and training Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool."Tony Cragg." ''Contemporary Artists''. Farmington Hills, ...
and Richard Deacon. His first solo exhibition took place at Patrice Alexandra, Paris, in 1980. He achieved widespread recognition when he represented Britain at the 1990
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
, and recounts the experience in
Sarah Thornton Sarah L. Thornton (born 1965) is a writer, ethnographer and sociologist of culture. Thornton has authored three books and many articles about artists, the art market, technology and design, the history of music technology, dance clubs, raves ...
's ''Seven Days in the Art World''. In 1992 Kapoor contributed to
documenta IX DOCUMENTA IX was the ninth edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 13 June and 20 September 1992 in Kassel, Germany. The artistic director was Jan Hoet in collaboration with Bart de Baere, Denys ...
with ''Building Descent into Limbo''. In 2004, he participated in The 5th Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, Korea. Solo exhibitions of his work have since been held in the
Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
and
Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the R ...
in London,
Kunsthalle Basel Kunsthalle Basel is a contemporary art gallery in Basel, Switzerland. As Switzerland's oldest and still most active institution for contemporary art, Kunsthalle Basel forms a vital part of Basel's cultural centre and is located next to the city's ...
in Switzerland, Reina Sofia in Madrid, the
National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...
in Ottawa, Musée des arts contemporains (Grand-Hornu) in Belgium, the CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art in
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
, the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Brazil, and the Guggenheim in
Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. In 2008, the Institute of Contemporary Art in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
held the first U.S. mid career survey of Kapoor's work. That same year, Kapoor's ''Islamic Mirror'' (2008), a circular concave mirror, was installed in a 13th-century Arab palace now being used as by the Convent of Santa Clara in
Murcia Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...
, Spain. Kapoor was the first living British artist to take over the Royal Academy, London, in 2009; the show attracted 275,000 visitors, rendering it at the time the most successful exhibition ever by a living artist held in London. Eventually it was overtaken by the more than 478,000 who attended the
David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...
exhibition at the Tate Modern in 2017. This show subsequently travelled to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. In 2010, Kapoor retrospective exhibitions were held at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi and Mumbai's
Mehboob Studio Mehboob Studio is an Indian film studio and recording studio in Bandra (W), Mumbai, founded in 1954 by director and producer Mehboob Khan, who previously owned Mehboob Productions (founded 1942), and is most known for films such as '' Mother In ...
, the first showcase of his work in the country of his birth. In 2011 Kapoor had a solo touring exhibition with the Arts Council, part of their "Flashback " series of shows. In May he exhibited ''Leviathan'' at the Grand Palais, and two concurrent shows in Milan at the
Rotonda della Besana The Rotonda della Besana (also known as Rotonda di Via Besana or Complesso di San Michele ai Nuovi Sepolcri, and originally as FopponeThe Milanese word ''foppone'' is an augmentative form of ''foppa'', which means "hole" and also "grave". A ''fop ...
and Fabbrica del Vapore. He had a major exhibition at the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), located on George Street in Sydney's The Rocks neighbourhood, is solely dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting, and collecting contemporary art, from across Australia and around the world. It is ...
(MCA) from December 2012 to April 2013 as part of the Sydney International Art Series. ''Dirty Corner'', exhibited at the Palace of Versailles in 2015, was a topic of controversy due to its "blatantly sexual" nature. Kapoor himself reportedly described the work as "the vagina of a queen who is taking power". In 2020 Kapoor unveiled a new exhibition at the grounds of
Houghton Hall Houghton Hall ( ) is a country house in the parish of Houghton in Norfolk, England. It is the residence of David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley. It was commissioned by the ''de facto'' first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Wa ...
in
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
. It was the largest ever outdoor exhibition of pieces by Kapoor, containing 21 sculptures, some previously unseen, as well as a selection of drawings of his. From 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022 an exhibition of works created during the pandemic - ‘Painting’ - was shown at the Museum of Modern Art Oxford.


Collections

Kapoor's work is collected worldwide, notably by the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in New York City;
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
in London; Fondazione Prada in Milan; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the Guggenheim in Bilbao;
De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art De Pont Museum is a contemporary art museum in Tilburg, North Brabant, the Netherlands. De Pont has been named after the attorney and businessman Jan de Pont (1915-1987), whose estate provided for the establishment of a foundation to stimulate con ...
in Tilburg, the Netherlands; the
Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...
, Stockholm; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in
Kanazawa is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape ...
, Japan; and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.


Personal life

In 1995, Kapoor married German-born medieval art historian Susanne Spicale. They have a daughter Alba and a son Ishan and lived in a house designed by architect
Tony Fretton Tony Fretton (born 17 January 1945) is a British architect known for his residential and public gallery buildings, as well as other British and international design work. He graduated from the Architectural Association (AA) and worked for vario ...
in
Chelsea, London Chelsea is an affluent area in west London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area. Chelsea histori ...
. In 2009, Kapoor purchased a Georgian-style residence at
Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
for about £3.6 million and had it redesigned by David Chipperfield. The couple separated and divorced in 2013. Kapoor has since been in a relationship with
garden designer A garden designer is someone who designs the plan and features of gardens, either as an amateur or professional. The compositional elements of garden design and landscape design are: terrain, water, planting, constructed elements and buildings, ...
Sophie Walker and the two married in 2016 (or early 2017).


Literature

* Heinz-Norbert Jocksin conversation with Anish Kapoor. Scheitere oft, aber schnell, Kunstforum International, Bd. 254, Cologne 2018, p.174-195


Awards and honours

Artistic accolades *1990 ''Premio Duemila'', Venice Biennale *1991
Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...
*1999 elected Royal AcademicianRoyal Academy of Arts, "Anish Kapoor RA"
Retrieved 22 October 2011
*2011
Praemium Imperiale Prince Takamatsu The Praemium Imperiale ( ja, 高松宮殿下記念世界文化賞, Takamatsu-no-miya Denka Kinen Sekai Bunka-shō, World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu) is an international art prize inaugur ...
Civilian honours *2003
Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
(CBE) - 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours List *2011 French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres *2012
Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...
, India's third-highest civilian honour. *2013
Knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
- 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours List Honorary Fellowships *1997 London Institute *1997
University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...
*1999
University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university located on four campuses across the West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in England. The roots of the university lie in the Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mechanics' Institute founde ...
*2001
Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...
Other *2016
LennonOno Grant for Peace The LennonOno Grant for Peace is an award presented by artist and peace activist Yoko Ono. The grant, a sum of $50,000, has been awarded biennially to people and organisations chosen by Ono herself since 2002, in honour of Ono's late husband John L ...
*2017
Genesis Prize The Genesis Prize ( he, פרס בראשית) is a $1 million annual prize awarded to Jewish people who have achieved significant professional success, in recognition of their accomplishments, contributions to humanity, and commitment to Jewish val ...


See also

* '' Scheps v Fine Art Logistics Ltd''


Notes


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kapoor, Anish 1954 births Living people 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century Indian sculptors 20th-century male artists 21st-century British sculptors 21st-century Indian sculptors 21st-century male artists Academics of the University of Wolverhampton Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts Alumni of Middlesex University British contemporary artists British humanists British installation artists British Jews British male sculptors British people of Indian-Jewish descent Commanders of the Order of the British Empire The Doon School alumni Indian contemporary artists Indian contemporary sculptors Indian emigrants to England Indian Jews Indian male sculptors Indian people of Iraqi-Jewish descent Jewish artists Jewish sculptors Knights Bachelor Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Punjabi artists Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts Royal Academicians Turner Prize winners