British-Indian, b. 1954, Mumbai, India, based in London, United Kingdom
Anish Kapoor is one of the most influential artists of his generation. Perhaps most famous for
public sculptures that are both adventures in form and feats of engineering, he manoeuvres
between vastly different scales, across numerous series of work. Immense PVC skins, stretched
or deflated, recesses carved in stone and pigmented so as to disappear, concave or convex
mirrors whose reflections attract and swallow the viewer (including some of the most remarkable
public works including Sky Mirror in New York City and the much-loved Cloud Gate permanently
installed in Chicago), these voids and protrusions summon up deep-felt metaphysical polarities of
presence and absence, concealment and revelation. Forms turn themselves inside out, womb-like,
and materials are not painted but impregnated with colour, as if to negate the idea of an outer
surface, inviting the viewer to the inner reaches of the imagination. Kapoor’s geometric forms
from the early 1980s, for example, rise up from the floor and appear to be made of pure pigment,
while the viscous, blood-red wax sculptures from the last ten years – kinetic and self-generating –
ravage their own surfaces and explode the quiet of the gallery environment. There are resonances
with mythologies of the ancient world – Indian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman – and with modern
times, where 20th century events loom large.
Kapoor's work is collected worldwide, notably by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City;
Tate Modern in London; Fondazione Prada in Milan; The Art Gallery of South Wales , Sydney;
the Guggenheim in Bilbao; the De Pont Foundation in the Netherlands; the Moderna Museet Stockholm;
the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa , Japan; and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem
