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Anish Kapoor
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Why Anish Kapoor says artists need a collective voice to overcome the environment of fear : The Indian-origin British sculptor, who knows a thing or two about offending people, says never waste a good crisis. Sir Anish Kapoor knows a thing or two about offending people. He didn't set out to do so with his sculpture “Dirty Corner” for the Palace of Versailles in 2015 which was unofficially dubbed “The Queen's Vagina”, but he fought tooth-and-nail to defend his freedom of artistic expression. A former Rolex Arts Initiative Mentor, the 63-year-old spoke at the Rolex Arts Weekend in Berlin last week on the role of an artist as an interpreter of our troubled times. Here he speaks to Kaveree Bamzai on the sidelines of the Mentor and Protégé programme on finding the moral courage to speak up in the age of rage and the era of Padmaavat. As he says, "Individual voices are fine but there has to be a moment where artists join together to transgress the project that builds fear." He asks the valid question that all citizens should: "Where is the rule of law? What happened to our judicial system? Why and how are our lawyers who promote free speech so silent? What’s wrong with them?" And perhaps answers it himself when he talks of what his open outrage against the government's attempt to stifle dissent cost him - cancellation of two commissions, one celebrating Mahatma Gandhi's Salt March at Dandi and another building a new stepwell at a new university being opened in Ahmadabad. "But once again the project was designed, ready to go, everything was there and set and cancelled for precisely the same reason." He adds: "I have been very critical of [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi publicly in a little piece that I wrote for The Guardian three years ago. I said that his regime was akin to the Hindu Taliban. I am afraid I have to stick to that and I am afraid it is more true now than it was then." About DailyO: Welcome to DailyO YouTube Channel. We offer you wide-angle and clear-eyed perspectives and quick analyses on politics, sports, science and technology, business, national and international news, life, art and culture, among other issues that shape and influence our everyday lives. The objective is to help you, the viewer, become informed individuals, free to form your own views and opinions about issues that concern and affect us all. At DailyO, we present you both breaking views as well as reflective essays to let you feel the pulse of the national and global developments.
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Anish Kapoor
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Public Art Fund Talks at The New School: Anish Kapoor : Public Art Fund Talks at The New School (http://newschool.edu/) are organized by Public Art Fund (https://publicartfund.org/) in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics (http://veralistcenter.org/) at The New School. This program is made possible in part by ConEdison and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, as well as by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The New School | http://newschool.edu Among the most influential sculptors of his generation, Anish Kapoor works in a wide variety of scales and formats, and in a range of media including pigment, stone, stainless steel, resin, wax, earth, and silicone. Over four decades, he has created a remarkably inventive and resonant body of work layered with artistic, cultural, and personal associations. Kapoor is well known for his site-responsive works, marrying a Modernist sense of pure materiality with a fascination for the manipulation of form and the perception of space. He has created a number of iconic public artworks, Chicago’s Cloud Gate (2004), for example, now a striking symbol for the city. Although the forms of his work are abstract, Kapoor’s public installations have often provoked responses and debates around cultural, social, and political questions. His 2015 exhibition at the Château de Versailles set off a national debate in France when it was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti. Kapoor’s talk at The New School accompanies Public Art Fund’s upcoming exhibition Descension, the artist’s viscerally arresting new installation. Sited at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, this massive, spiraling funnel of water suggests powerful and unseen forces, at once captivating and foreboding. Kapoor’s talk will focus on his long engagement with public space, reflecting on the creative, cultural and political dimensions of his practice. Descension will be on view May 3 – September 10, 2017 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1. Anish Kapoor (b. 1954, Bombay) lives and works in London. He studied at Hornsey College of Art (1973–77) followed by postgraduate studies at Chelsea School of Art, London (1977–78). Recent major solo exhibitions include Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma (MACRO), Rome (2016); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City (2016); Château de Versailles, France (2015); The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow (2015); Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul (2013); Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2013); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2012); Le Grand Palais, Paris (2011), the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2009); The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2008); and Public Art Fund, New York (2006). He represented Britain at the 44th Venice Biennale (1990), for which he was awarded the Premio Duemila, and has honorary fellowships from the London Institute and Leeds University (1997), the University of Wolverhampton (1999), the Royal Institute of British Architecture (2001) and the University of Oxford (2014). His major permanent commissions include Cloud Gate (2004) for the Millennium Park in Chicago and Orbit for the London 2012 Olympic Park. In 2013 Ark Nova, the world’s first inflatable concert hall, was launched for the Lucerne Festival in Japan. He won the Turner Prize in 1991, was elected Royal Academician in 1999, awarded the Premium Imperiale in 2011 and the Padma Bhushan in 2012. Kapoor was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2013 and in February this year, won the The Genesis Prize, donating the $1 million prize to aid refugees. Location: John L. Tishman Auditorium, University Center 63 Fifth Avenue, Room U100, New York, NY 10003 Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at 6:30 pm
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British sculptor.

Biographical Information

Name: Anish Kapoor
Full name: Anish Mikhail Kapoor
Born on 12 March 1954 in , Maharashtra, India, Asia

Structures and Projects

Participation in the following structures & large-scale projects:

sculptor
  • About this
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  • Published on:
    01/10/2018
  • Last updated on:
    01/10/2018