Biography for Anish Kapoor
Signed Prints & Originals
Sir Anish Kapoor, CBE RA (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor. Born in Bombay,Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.
He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice Biennale in 1990, when he was awarded the Premio Duemila Prize. In 1991 he received the Turner Prize and in 2002 received the Unilever Commission for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Notable public sculptures include Cloud Gate (colloquially known as "the Bean") in Chicago's Millennium Park; Sky Mirror, exhibited at the Rockefeller Center in New York City in 2006 and Kensington Gardens in London in 2010; Temenos, at Middlehaven, Middlesbrough; Leviathan, at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2011; and ArcelorMittal Orbit, commissioned as a permanent artwork for London's Olympic Park and completed in 2012.
Kapoor received a knighthood in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to visual arts. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Oxford in 2014. In 2012 he was awarded Padma Bhushan by the Indian government which is India's 3rd highest civilian award. In 2016 he was announced as a recipient of the LennonOno Grant for Peace. He owns exclusive rights to use Vantablack, the blackest substance known, for artistic purposes.
Kapoor became known in the 1980s for his geometric or biomorphic sculptures using simple materials such as granite, limestone, marble, pigment and plaster. These early sculptures are frequently simple, curved forms, usually monochromatic and brightly coloured, using powder pigment to define and permeate the form. "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." Such use of pigment characterised his first high-profile exhibit as part of the New Sculpture exhibition at the Hayward Gallery 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 installed in the Baltic Flour Mills in Gateshead, England, before renovation began there; and Marsyas (2002), a large work consisting of three steel rings joined by a single span of PVC membrane that reached end to end of the 3,400-square-foot (320 m2) Turbine Hall of Tate Modern. Kapoor's Eye in Stone (Norwegian: Øye i stein) is permanently placed at the shore of the fjord in Lødingenin northern Norway as part of Artscape Nordland. 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 is also part of his repertoire, evocative of flesh, blood, and transfiguration. In 2007, he showed Svayambh (which translated from Sanskrit 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 his work blurs the boundaries between architecture and art. In 2008, Kapoor created Memory in Berlin and New York for the Guggenheim Foundation, his first piece in Cor-Ten, 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’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. Kapoor installed four sculptures during the festival: Sky Mirror at Brighton Pavilion gardens; C-Curve at The Chattri, Blood Relations (a collaboration with author Salman Rushdie); and 1000 Names, both at Fabrica. 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. Fully occupying 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) was a success, with literary contributions from Catherine Lampert, Cecilia Delgado, and Mexican writer Pablo Soler Frost.
This time the breathtakingly beautiful series ’12 Etchings’ printed on 300gsm Sommerset Textured Soft White paper. Their bland titles ‘Untitled 01’, ‘Untitled 02’ and so on, give no hint of the exquisite beauty that whispers through these prints. ‘Untitled 01’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is made up of the rich sienna and flaming amber hues of an Indian sunset. ‘Untitled 02’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is made up of earthy tones and a soft hazy light. ‘Untitled 03’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is a powerful powder puff of cobalt blue pigment. ‘Untitled 04’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is a glinting haze of a red hot sunrise. ‘Untitled 05’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is a pigment splash of diffusing coffee and chocolate hues. ‘Untitled 06’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is a golden glob of fiery light. ‘Untitled 07’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is a startling splash of vermillion and scarlet. ‘Untitled 08’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is a deep dark hole surrounded by a blanket of visceral reds. ‘Untitled 09’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is a rippling pool of rich spiced hues. ‘Untitled 10’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is a plump cloud of the deepest darkest blue hues. ‘Untitled 11’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is a diffusing powder puff of brilliant crimson hues. And ‘Untitled 12’, edition size 40, signed lower right Anish Kapoor, is a spidery array of vivid scarlet, vibrant vermillion and blood red hues.
2007 also saw the publication of the same set of extraordinary beautiful etchings created in a dramatic black and white series; ‘History’. These 15 black and white etchings are printed on 300gsm Sommerset Textured Soft White paper. An edition of 30 sets of signed prints, each signed lower right Anish Kapoor.
Anish Kapoor’s later works, blurring the boundaries between sculpture and architecture, are made up of solid, quarried stone, many of which are carved apertures and cavities, often alluding to, and playing with, dualities (earth-sky, mater-spirit, lightness-darkness, visible-invisible, conscious-unconscious, male-female and body-mind). Anish Kapoor’s most recent works are mirror-like, reflecting or distorting the viewer and surroundings. Anish Kapoor’s ‘Shadow’ series of prints reflect these latter works.
‘Shadow’ published in 2007 are a dazzling set of 9 etchings prints on 300gsm Sommerset Textured Soft White paper. Again their ‘Untitled’ titles do nothing to hint at their bejewelled charm. ‘Untitled 01’, edition size 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is vivid red in colour. ‘Untitled 02’, edition size 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is golden yellow in colour. ‘Untitled 03’, edition size 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is brilliant blue in colour. ‘Untitled 04’, edition size 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is glistening grey in colour. ‘Untitled 05’, edition size 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is rich chocolate brown in colour. ‘Untitled 06’, edition size 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is deep amethyst blue in colour. ‘Untitled 07’, edition size 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is crisp apple green in colour. ‘Untitled 08’, edition size 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is juicy plum purple in colour. And ‘Untitled 09’, edition size 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is gleaming copper in colour.
‘Shadow’ was followed in 2008 by ‘Shadow II’ unlike ‘Shadow’ where each print is adorned in a vertical strip of light, ‘Shadow II’ prints are created with a circular orb of light penetrating from the centre of the paper. A set of 9 etchings, printed on 300gsm Sommerset Textured Soft White paper, they are: ‘Untitled 01’, edition of 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of aquarium/blue hues. ‘Untitled 02’, edition of 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of gold/yellow hues. ‘Untitled 03’, edition of 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of cobalt/navy hues. ‘Untitled 04’, edition of 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of chocolate brown hues. ‘Untitled 05’, edition of 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of amber/orange hues. ‘Untitled 06’, edition of 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of emerald/turquoise hues. ‘Untitled 07’, edition of 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of grey/white hues. ‘Untitled 08’, edition of 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor is made up of charcoal/black hues. ‘Untitled 09’, edition of 35, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor is made up of plum/burgundy hues.
The success of these series of prints was followed in 2009 by ‘Shadow III’. A series of 9 colour etchings printed on 300gsm Somerset Textured Soft paper. These equally dazzling set of prints follow in the rich vein of ‘Shadow’ but have a whip of horizontal (as oppose to vertical) light sliced through the centre of each print. ‘Untitled 01’, edition of 39, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of brilliant crimson hues. ‘Untitled 02’, edition of 39, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of charcoal grey hues. ‘Untitled 03’, edition of 39, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of deep scarlet hues. ‘Untitled 04’, edition of 39, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of vibrant green hues. ‘Untitled 05’, edition of 39, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor is made up of deep blue hues. ‘Untitled 06’, edition of 39, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of dark purple hues. ‘Untitled 07’, edition of 39, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of golden yellow hues. ‘Untitled 08’, edition of 39, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of earthy brown hues. ‘Untitled 09’, edition of 39, signed on reverse Anish Kapoor, is made up of plum purple hues.
Anish Kapoor’s latest series of etchings was published in 2010 ‘Horizon Shadows’. A set of 9 etching prints, printed on 300gsm Sommerset Textured Soft White paper, signed Anish Kapoor and numbered on reverse, an edition size of 35. 2010 also saw Anish Kapoor return to India for his first show case in his country of birth. Anish Kapoor’s major retrospective was held at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi and Mumbai’s Mehboob Studio. Back in England, an exhibition of his serenely beautiful mirror works reflecting their surroundings of leafy Kensington Gardens are in situ until March 2011.