Sir Anish Kapoor

BEST known for his wildly popular ArcelorMittal Orbit in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London -Indian sculptor Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor CBE is undoubtedly one of the most influential contemporary artists of our times.

Art pieces by Sir Anish clearly reflecthis fondness of abstract biomorphic forms and his penchant for rich colours and polished surfaces. Hallmarks of his practice are monochromatic palettes —intense hues of black, red, and blue—with which he creates mysterious spaces and voids within his sculptures.

Last year, Venice’s highly reputed Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia staged a presentation of both his retrospective and new works. The exhibition ran from April to October where Sir Anish presented work from his seminal body of early pigment sculptures 1000 Names and Void works.

Aside from the show at the Accademia, an extended part of the exhibition took place at Palazzo PriuliManfrin- an abandoned 16th-century structure that was recently acquired by the Anish Kapoor Foundation.The entire space featured works from his career, ranging from the painted triptych Internal Objects in Three Parts (2013-2015) to pieces like the iconic pigment work White Sand, Red Millet, Many Flowers (1982).

In both venues, Kapoor debuted a body of sculptural work coated in what has been called “Kapoor black”, officially known as Vantablack, a material that absorbs more than 99.9 per cent of visible light. The effect of this “blacker-than-black" innovation is such that sculptures appear two-dimensional

He is also the first living artist to be given a solo show at the Royal Academy of Artsin London where he presented Grayman Cries, Shaman Dies, Billowing Smoke, Beauty Evoked- array of art forms made from coils of concrete extruded from a 3-D printer.

Sir Anish was born in India in 1954 to parents of Punjabi and Iraqi-Jewish heritage.He moved from India to London in the early 1970s to study Art. He received a BA in Fine Art at Hornsey College of Art and an MA in Fine Art at the Chelsea School of Art and Design. By 1980s, he started getting recognition for his unique eye-catchy and innovative installations.

His early work series utilized vibrant powdered pigment, sculpted into perfect geometric forms. In the mid-90s, Sir Anish began working with materials like fibre glass, stainless steel, and PVC.

In 1990 he represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale with his installation Void Field, a grid of rough sandstone blocks, each with a mysterious black hole penetrating its top surface. The following year he was honoured with the Turner Prize, Britain’s best known art prize.

He was elected as a Royal Academician in 1999, received Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2003) and was awarded Knighthood in 2013.

UK’s most acclaimed artwork by Sir Anish- ArcelorMittal Tower- was commissioned by the city of London for the 2012 Olympic Games. Designed in concert with Balmond, the structure is 376 feet in height and is a swirling network of red-painted steel tubes.