Blue Shadow

Anish Kapoor

Anish Kapoor is known for elegant sculptures of spare geometries and organic forms, which he fabricates with feats of engineering. His most famous pieces have been public commissions, including Cloud Gate (2006), a reflective stainless steel sculpture in Chicago—popularly known as “The Bean”—and Orbit (2012), a looping structure of tubular steel constructed in honor of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Convex and concave surfaces and mirrors, which offer optical illusions, are a common motif throughout his work. Kapoor’s fame skyrocketed in the 1990s: He represented Britain at the 1990 Venice Biennale, where he was awarded the Premio Duemila for best young artist. The following year, Kapoor won the Turner Prize. Today, his work belongs in the permanent collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Tate, and Moderna Museet, among other institutions. A number of his works have sold for more than $1 million at auction.