Anish Kapoor (born 1954) is a sculptor.

Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the prestigeous Doon School, located in Dehra Dun, India. He moved to England in 1972, and has lived there ever since. He studied art, first at the Hornsey College of Art, and later at the Chelsea School of Art Design. He works in London, although he frequently visits India, and has acknowledged that his art is inspired by both western and eastern cultures. His art historical influences include: Mantegna, Beuys, Barnett Newman, and Yves Klein.

In the early 1980s, Kapoor emerged as one of a number of British sculptors working in a new style and gaining international recognition with their work (the others included Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Anthony Gormley, Bill Woodrow and Richard Wentworth ).

Kapoor's pieces are often simple, curved forms, usually monochromatic, and frequently brightly coloured. Early pieces rely on powder pigment to cover the works and the floor around them. This practice is inspired by the mounds of brightly coloured pigments seen in markets and temples in India. Later works are made of solid, quarried stone, many of which have carved out apertures and cavities in them, often alluding to, and playing with, dualities (earth-sky, matter-spirit, lightness-darkness, the visible-the invisible, conscious-unconscious, male-female, body-mind).

Since the end of the 1990s, Kapoor has produced a number of very large works, including Taratantara (1999), a 35 metre-tall piece installed in the Baltic Flour Mills in Gateshead, England, before renovation began there, and Marsyas (2002), a large work of steel and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) installed in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern. In 2000, one of Kapoor's works, Parabolic Waters, consisting of rapidly rotating coloured water, was shown outside the Millennium Dome in London. In 2004, Cloud Gate, a 110-ton (100,000 kg) stainless steel piece, was unveiled at Millennium Park in Chicago. Solo exhibitions of Kapoor's work have been held in the Tate and Hayward Gallery in London, Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland, Reina Sofia in Madrid, the National Gallery in Ottawa, and the CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux.

Kapoor represented Britain in the 1990 Venice Biennale, where he was awarded the Premio Duemila, and the following year he won the prestigious Turner Prize.

Kapoor's latest work, Cloud Gate , is caught up in a debate over photography rights in public spaces, with Chicago district claiming any photographs of the work infringe the artist's copyright. [1]

Soon to be completed are a memorial to the British victims of 9/11 in New York[2], and the design/construction of a subway station in Naples, Italy[3]. Kapoor's recent work increasingly blurs the boundaries between architecture and art.

External Links

1 Lisson Gallery Description and images of Kapoor's work from his London-based gallery.

2 Marsyas About Kapoor's 2003 installation piece in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall.

3 Cloud Gate Images/description of Kapoor's public sculpture at Millennium Park, Chicago.

4 Sky Mirror Website with images/articles on Kapoor's public sculpture in Nottingham, England.

5 Icon and Illusion Article on the artist's work.

6 Miscellaneous articles Bio and collection of articles and links on Kapoor.