Anish Kapoor

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Anish Kapoor was born in 1954 in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. In the early 1970s, he moved to London, where he earned his undergraduate degree at the Hornsey College of Art and his MA at the Chelsea School of Art. Studying under Paul Neagu, a Romanian-born artist, Kapoor learned to articulate a cross-cultural artistic vision. In 1979, he returned to India, and with new perspectives on his homeland, he began to use saturated pigments in his works.

Throughout his career, Kapoor has been fascinated with exploring negative space through geometric, curvilinear, and reflected forms, often created from diverse materials such as mirrors, stone, granite, dirt, concrete, wax, and PVC. He is best known, however, for his large-scale, abstract, public sculptures that manipulate form and the perception of space. He received critical acclaim for his most recognizable work, Cloud Gate (2004), otherwise known as the “Bean,” which is installed in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

In 1991, Kapoor was awarded the Turner Prize. In 2003, he was named a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and was knighted in 2013 for his services to the visual arts. He is the first living artist to be given a solo show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of his generation, Kapoor lives and works in London.

IMAGE CREDIT: Anish Kapoor, Upside Down, Inside Out (Al revés, de adentro hacia afuera), 2003. Resin and paint. Museum purchase with funds generously provided by Men’s Arts Council Sculpture Endowment, Susan and Eliot Black, Jacquie and Bennett Dorrance, Ellen and Howard Katz, Sally and Richard Lehmann, Robynn and Robert Sussman, Wilde Family Trust, Heather and Michael Greenbaum, Faith Sussman and Richard Corton, Mary Beth and Joseph Cherskov, Jerry Appell, Denise and Robert Delgado, and Patricia and Richard Nolan. © Anish Kapoor / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.