Anish Kapoor - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Tuesday, October 13, 2015 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Gladstone Gallery, New York
    McCabe Fine Art

  • Literature

    A. Kapoor, Anish Kapoor: Symphony for a Beloved Sun, Köln: Walther König, 2013, p. 198 (similar example illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    ‘It is a space that recedes deep into the picture plane. This is the traditional space of the sublime. There is another space which one might call ‘object space’, which is in front of the picture plane. I have worked with concave mirror space for twenty years now because concave mirror space is in front of the picture plane and it is a new kind of space and a new sublime. A modern sublime, a ‘now’ sublime, a ‘here’ sublime.’ (A. Kapoor quoted in an interview with Donna de Salvo taken from: D. Anfam, Anish Kapoor, London 2012, p.403)

    Delving into the spiritual and the metaphysical is one way to describe what lies at the core of Anish Kapoor’s artistic experimentations. Dissatisfied with merely creating art that dwells on the material or earthly, his works transcend these subjects and reach further into abstract notions centred on greater moral and intellectual ideas. In his highly polished surfaces, particularly the iridescent mirror works, Kapoor’s dedication to striving for perfection becomes inherently clear. In fact, the entire process of producing his sculptures appears to become an almost cathartic and spiritually elevating cycle for the artist, furthermore, Kapoor transfers this feeling to the viewer by incorporating them within his works -quite literally- by reflecting their image.

    'I think I am a painter who is a sculptor (...). For me the two things have somehow come together, so that I am making physical things that are all about somewhere else, about illusory space.' (A. Kapoor in an interview by Art Monthly, May 1990). For Kapoor the concave mirrored form has inspired and beguiled him for generations, permeating his artistic production in a profound way particularly since the mid-1990s. As such, it has become one of the most recognisable signature motifs in his oeuvre. Untitled (2010) is an emphatic example of this subject rendered in stainless steel and gold plating. Enthralled by the possibilities of the curved, circular reflective form, Kapoor creates a window into an alternative world – one that inverts and distorts the space in which the viewer is situated. Thus, a sense of familiarity mingles with the surreal, creating an almost dreamlike confusion within the beholder as everything is further tinted by a gold filter.

    Captured by the symbolic weight of certain shapes and colours, many of Kapoor’s structures are centred on the hemispherical form. Born in Bombay, Kapoor’s exposure to South Asian religious iconography from a young age perhaps influenced his preoccupation with this shape in particular. Its importance in Hinduism for example, can be found in the Bindu which represents unity and creation as well as energy and fertility. Kapoor’s decision to employ gold plating in Untitled highlights the superior status of the orb-like form. Grandeur and refined elegance characterise this sculpture and as a consequence, give rise to an intrinsic beauty best associated with his mirrored forms. Comparing this work to that of Kapoor’s more organic pieces such as Keriah II, one can see the sheer range within the artist’s eclectic oeuvre. Though the inextricable link between the material and the void, the natural and the manmade, the present and the illusionary come to the fore in all his works, the concaved mirrored sculptures act as one of the most established emblems of Kapoor’s artistic endeavours.

Property from the Estate of Dr. Fredric S. Brandt, Miami

Ο◆10

Untitled

2010
stainless steel, gold plating
100 x 100 x 25 cm (39 3/8 x 39 3/8 x 9 7/8 in.)
Signed and dated 'A Kapoor 2010' on the reverse.

Estimate
£400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠

Sold for £458,500

Contact Specialist
Peter Sumner
Head of Contemporary Art, London
psumner@phillips.com
+44 207 318 4063

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 14 October 2015 7pm