Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor is one of the most influential sculptors of his generation. Perhaps most famous for his public sculptures which are both adventures in form and feats of engineering, Kapoor maneuvers between very different scales, across many series of works. Huge PVC skins, stretched or deflated; concave or convex mirrors whose reflections attract and swallow the viewer; nooks carved into stone and pigmented to disappear: these voids and protrusions evoke deep metaphysical polarities of presence and absence, concealment and revelation. The forms turn upside down, resembling a womb, and the materials are not painted but infused with color, as if to negate the idea of an outer surface, inviting the viewer inside the imagination. Kapoor’s geometric shapes of the early 1980s, for example, rise from the ground and appear to be made of pure pigment, while the viscous, blood-red wax sculptures of the past decade – kinetic and self-generating – ravage their clean surfaces and explode the calm of the gallery environment. There are resonances with the mythologies of the ancient world – Indian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman – and with modern times.
Anish Kapoor was born in Mumbai, India in 1954 and lives and works in London. He studied at Hornsey College of Art, London, UK (1973–77), followed by postgraduate studies at Chelsea School of Art, London, UK (1977–78).