ART
The Royal Academy is breaking with tradition and
for the first time dedicating all five of its main
galleries to the works of a living artist – those of
celebrated sculptor and 1991 Turner Prize winner
Anish Kapoor.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential
and pioneering sculptors of his generation, Kapoor
is renowned for monumental works such as
Marsyas, which presided over the Tate Modern’s
Turbine Hall in 2002 and the huge, reflective
stainless steel work Cloud Gate in Chicago.
The exhibition at the Royal Academy surveys
Kapoor’s career to date as well as showcasing new,
previously unseen works.
Five of the Academy’s rooms are taken up by
the monumental work Svayambh – a 30 ton block
Kapoor’s
of red wax that moves almost imperceptibly on
sunken rails, leaving a residue in its wake. At three
meters wide and two meters tall, the work is too
wax work
big to fit through the doorways of the gallery and
is gradually moulded by the building as it squeezes
through.
The wax theme continues in the Weston Rooms
with Shooting into the Corner (2009). Consisting of
a cannon that projects red wax in to a corner at
regular intervals, the work gradually creates a self
made sculpture that grows and changes over the
duration of the exhibition. Described by the artist
as “a psycho drama in a violent world”, the loud
bang made by the cannon is as much a part of the
work as the end form.
Elsewhere in the exhibition there are machine
made cement works – an entirely new departure
for Kapoor – as well as early iconic pigment pieces
and stainless steel reflective sculptures. Outside,
the Annenburg Courtyard is home to a major new
sculpture that stands at 15 meters tall and made
up of endlessly reflecting steel silver spheres.
Born in India in 1954, Kapoor studied at
Hornsey College of Art and the Chelsea School of
Art. He lives in Chelsea.
Until December 11 at the Royal Academy,
Burlington House, Piccadilly. T: 020 7300 8000.
Svayambh – a 40-ton block of red wax
moving imperceptibly on rails
17
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