Anish Kapoor

by David Anfam, Johanna Burton, and Donna De Salvo

Published 30 October 2009
Anish Kapoor's sculptures are as mysterious as they are beautiful. Although they employ a wide range of traditional and non-traditional materials, their real subject is often immaterial and ungraspable: a chasm, a reflection, a column of air. Kapoor belongs to a generation of British sculptors (Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Antony Gormley) who revived sculpture by injecting it with new vitality, even playfulness, in the wake of Minimalism. It should come as no surprise, then, that he is one of the best-loved artists working today, the recipient of numerous international awards (including the Turner Prize) and the creative force behind some of the most popular public sculptures in contemporary art, including Marsyas in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall (2002) and Cloud Gate in Chicago's Millennium Park (2004).