Anish Kapoor

Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia

Private Collection, Italy

Christie’s, London, 11 February 2014, Lot 56 (consigned by the above)

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is deeper and richter in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
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The mesmerising intensity of Anish Kapoor’s seminal Void transcends into an ethereal space of infinity that is akin to the vastness of the sky or ocean. Presenting itself as an abyssal meander of deep ultramarine blue from afar, rippled nuances of the pigment appear at close view as if looking onto an endless sea. Sublime in appearance and imposing in size, the present work embarks on a revolutionary path in which the autonomy of pure colour and the exploration of infinite space and the void are celebrated. 

Kapoor first embarked on his iconic Void series in 1985 as a crucial development of the colossus group of pigment pieces entitled 1000 Names (1979-81) that first brought the artist to critical acclaim. In this extraordinary body of work, Kapoor created all-consuming immense wall hung structures that hypnotically slip between a concave surface and sculptural relief with surprising ease.

When the viewer approaches Void head on, the cavernous bowl immediately envelops and immerses, whilst when approached from the side appears as though a mighty convex form. As cultural theorist Homi K. Bhabha observed: “Kapoor’s voids, standing before us as sculpted objects – blue powders turning into the colour of far, fetching distance – are distinct from his creation of emptiness” (Homi K. Bhabha, ‘Anish Kapoor: Making Emptiness’, in: Exh. Cat., London, Hayward Gallery, Anish Kapoor, 1998, p. 17). Indeed, the intense, rich shade of blue in the present work is immediately redolent of the luxuriant surfaces of Yves Klein’s infamous International Klein Blue paintings. Unlike Kapoor’s mirrored sculptures, the opulent blue ground does not invoke notions of emptiness; rather it brims with suggestions of infinity and oblivion that are tinged with connotations of darkness. As Kapoor has explained: “Freud looked at the back of the cave, and maybe we’re still looking at the back of the cave. Maybe there in the uncanny darkness down the toilet, under the bed, it is much more frightening and revealing, where things begin. I have made a lot of work with black and blue, because blue is a colour that much more deeply reveals darkness. From a phenomenological point of view your eyes can’t quite focus on blue” (Anish Kapoor in conversation with Marcello Dantas, in: Exh. Cat., Rio de Janeiro, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (and travelling), Anish Kapoor: Ascension, 2006, n.p.). Placing themselves in front of Void, viewers are drawn to the epicentre of the concavity and become engulfed in the endless darkness emanating from the work, and such interaction between sculpture and viewer is an integral part of Kapoor’s works.

The manipulation of space has been one of Kapoor’s primary concerns throughout his career to date, and the artist has sought to investigate the non-material possibilities of emptiness and the potential of the void through his diverse body of work. The space contained within the circle invites associations with the idea of the void, a concept that has been of abiding interest for Kapoor throughout his career to date: “The void is not silent. I have always thought of it more as a transitional space, an in-between space. It’s very much to do with time. I have always been interested as an artist in how one can somehow look again for that very first moment of creativity where everything is possible and nothing has actually happened. It’s a space of becoming… something that dwells in the presence of the work… that allows it or forces it not to be what it states it is in the first instance” (Anish Kapoor cited in: op. cit., 1998, p. 35). This alteration and dislocation of perspective in Void encourages the onlooker to view the world around them afresh, imbuing the everyday with a sense of the marvellous and fantastical. Self-sufficient in its immateriality and aspiring to a sensibility that transposes the limits of time, the present work exudes an unmitigated but ultimately sensuous beauty. The alchemical mixture of mystical transcendence and conceptual rigour that is consolidated by the luminous ultramarine blue conjures an allurement of the invisible while the levitation of pure colour pigments evokes an extrasensory experience.