About Book
Born in Bombay and based in London since the 1970s, Anish Kapoor (b. 1954) has been a vital force in contemporary art for over three decades. His sculptures are hermetic but unmistakable, both for their striking abstract forms and for their distinctive use of materials, from the traditional (marble, bronze) to the high-tech (stainless steel, fibreglass). His work, in its pursuit of the sublime and the spiritual, updates an artistic lineage that spans from Abstract Expressionism to German Romantic painting and beyond. At the same time, his sustained exploration of the uncanny, centred on the morphology of the human body, gives his work its unique and timeless psychological depth. This is the most complete monograph ever published on the artist, covering more than thirty years of work and illustrated with hundreds of full-colour images, including sketches and technical diagrams from his most ambitious projects. It also features an extensive chronology covering the artist's life in detail and illustrated with snapshots, sketches and ephemera, some never before published. Kapoor has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Turner Prize in 1991 and a CBE in 2003.
His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at major museums around the world, including Haus der Kunst in Munich, Musee des Beaux-Arts in Nantes and Tate Modern in London, as well as important international exhibitions, such as Documenta 9 in Kassel, Expo '92 in Seville and the 44th Venice Biennale, where he represented Great Britain. He is also responsible for some of the world's best known public sculptures, including Taratantara (1999, Gateshead and Naples), Sky Mirror (2001, Nottingham, and 2006, New York) and Cloud Gate (2004, Chicago).
About Author
Johanna Burton, a critic and art historian, is on the faculty of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Her writing has appeared in a number of exhibition catalogues and magazines, including Artforum and Art Journal. In 2006 she edited Cindy Sherman, a collection of writings on the artist published by MIT Press. Donna De Salvo is Chief Curator and Associate Director of Programs at the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. Until 2004 she was Senior Curator at Tate Modern, London, where she organized Anish Kapoor's Marsyas in 2002. She has contributed to numerous exhibition catalogues, surveys and monographs, including Phaidon's Gillian Wearing. David Anfam is an art historian, critic and curator. His numerous publications include Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas - A Catalogue Raisonne (1998) and Abstract Expressionism: A World Elsewhere (2008). In 2007 he curated Bill Viola's Ocean Without a Shore for the 52nd Venice Biennale. Anfam is a member of the Advisory Board of the Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, and his awards include the Mitchell Prize for the History of Art (2000) and the Umhoeffer Prize for Achievement in Humanities (2009).