- 60
Anish Kapoor
Description
- Anish Kapoor
- Untitled
- copper alloy and lacquer
- 63 x 63 x 11 in. 160 x 160 x 28 cm.
- Executed in 2012.
Provenance
Exhibited
Condition
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Catalogue Note
Kapoor began creating his astonishing curved sculptures at the turn of the new millennium, utilizing the potential of the format in a range of different colored metallics, of which the bronze, gold and silver examples are strikingly powerful in their magnificent celebration of a perfect polished surface: a recognition of an almost alchemical process in which raw material becomes gleaming gold. In a recent interview Kapoor recalled the aesthetic revelation which led to the creation of his mirrored works following his sculptural inquiry into seemingly infinite void-like space: “I stumbled onto the idea that one could make an object that was concave. Suddenly this was not just a camouflaged object; it seemed to be a space full of mirror just like the previous works had been a space full of darkness. That felt like a real discovery. What happened was that it wasn’t just a mirror on a positive form – we have had that experience from Brancusi onwards. This seemed to be a different thing, a different order or object from a mirrored exterior…” (the artist in conversation with Hossein Amirsadeghi in Hossein Amirsadeghi and Maryam Homayoun Eisler, eds., Sanctuary: Britain’s Artists and their Studios, London 2011, p. 436) The inversed reflection creates a powerful sense of an alternate or inverse space beyond its circular limit. The luminous reflectivity of the surface causes shimmering ripples of light to reflect off the surrounding environment whilst seeming to radiate light outwards from the inverted orb itself. Indeed, like a votive icon, Untitled sustains our attention: by circumnavigating the work the viewer becomes enveloped within the space of the work itself.
Perfectly round and flawlessly reflective, Kapoor’s dish is magnetically disorienting. This piece relays a warped echo of our world in rose-gold hue. Glowing, orb-like and emitting a pale warm light akin to the setting sun, Untitled hovers against the wall and unmistakably invites solar associations – an endless stream of allusions spanning myriad cultures and mythologies entrenched in notions of life and light. From the sun god of Ancient Egypt to the halos of Christian iconography, Kapoor’s hovering metallic orbs deliver a contemporary manifestation of the sun’s manifold associations. Indeed, as highlighted by the Bronze exhibition, the disparity yet connection between ancient and contemporary here illuminates the very timelessness of Kapoor’s artistic project.