Royal Academy of Arts
Established	1768
Location	Piccadilly, London W1, U.K.
Visitor figures	1,267,784 (2009)[1] Ranked 11th nationally
President	Christopher Le Brun
Public transit access	Piccadilly Circus
Website	royalacademy.org.uk

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate.

History[link]

The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through a personal act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. The motive in founding the Academy was twofold: to raise the professional status of the artist by establishing a sound system of training and expert judgment in the arts and to arrange the exhibition of contemporary works of art attaining an appropriate standard of excellence. Behind this concept was the desire to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation and interest in the public based on recognised canons of good taste.

Fashionable taste in 18th century Britain had centered on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, provided an early venue for contemporary artists to show their work in Britain. The success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies and their initial success was marred by internal fractions amongst the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a national school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries supplanting the earlier art societies.

Sir William Chambers used his connections with King George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy and the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds was made its first President.

The Instrument of Foundation of the Royal Academy signed by King George III on 10 December 1768 named 34 Founder Members and allowed for a total membership of 40. The Founder Members were Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, Thomas Sandby, Francis Cotes, John Baker, Mason Chamberlin, John Gwynn, Thomas Gainsborough, Giovanni Battista Cipriani, Jeremiah Meyer, Francis Milner Newton, Paul Sandby, Francesco Bartolozzi, Charles Catton, Nathaniel Hone the Elder, William Tyler, Nathaniel Dance, Richard Wilson (painter), George Michael Moser, Samuel Wale, Peter Toms, Angelica Kauffman, Richard Yeo, Mary Moser, William Chambers, Joseph Wilton, George Barret, Edward Penny, Augustino Carlini, Francis Hayman, Dominic Serres, John Richards, Francesco Zuccarelli, George Dance. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as Nominated Members. Amongst the Founder Members were two women, a father and daughter and two sets of brothers.

Study for Henry Singleton's painting The Royal Academicians assembled in their council chamber to adjudge the Medals to the successful students in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Drawing, which hangs in the Royal Academy. Ca. 1793.

The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, London although in 1771 it was accorded temporary accommodation for its Library and Schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments on the Strand front of New Somerset House, which had been designed by Sir William Chambers, the Academy's first treasurer. The Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery (designed by another Academician, William Wilkins). These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions and in 1868, 100 years after the Academy's foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it is to this day.

The first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, was held on 25 April 1769 and ran through until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 The Royal Academy expanded its exhibition program to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters' following the cessation of a similar annual exhibition of Old Masters' held by the British Institution. The range and frequency of these loan exhibitions has grown enormously since that time making the Royal Academy a leading art exhibition institution of international importance.

Britain's first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, as a way of better fulfilling its mission. A programme led by the Academy's first President, Sir Joshua Reynolds, but also including famed lectures by Dr. William Hunter. John Flaxman, James Barry. Sir John Soane and J.M.W. Turner. The latter three were all graduates of the RA Schools, for a long time the only established art school in the country.

Activities[link]

The Royal Academy does not receive financial support from the state or crown. Its income is derived from exhibitions, trust and endowment funds, receipts from its trading activities and from the subscriptions of its Friends and Corporate Members. Much of the cost of its activities is met by sponsorship from commercial and industrial companies, in which the Academy was one of the pioneers. The Academy thus depends upon a wide range of support from the private sector for the accomplishment of its artistic aims.

One of its principal sources of revenue is hosting a programme of temporary loan exhibitions. These are of the highest quality, comparable to those at the National Gallery, the Tate Gallery and leading art galleries outside the United Kingdom. In 2004 the highlights of the Academy's permanent collection went on display in the newly restored reception rooms of the original section of Burlington House, which are now known as the "John Madejski Fine Rooms".

Under the direction of the former Exhibitions Secretary Norman Rosenthal the Academy has hosted ambitious exhibitions of contemporary art including in 1997 "Sensation" the collection of work by Young British Artists owned by Charles Saatchi. The show created controversy for including a portrait of Myra Hindley by Marcus Harvey that was vandalised while on display.

An early Summer Exhibition at the Academy's original home in Somerset House.

The Academy also hosts an annual Royal Academy summer exhibition of new art, which is a well known event on the London social calendar. It is not as fashionable as was the case in earlier centuries, and has been largely ignored by the trendy Brit Artists and their patrons; however Tracey Emin exhibited in the 2005 show. In March 2007 this relationship developed further when Tracey Emin accepted the Academy's invitation to become a Royal Academician, commenting in her weekly newspaper column that, "It doesn't mean that I have become more conformist; it means that the Royal Academy has become more open, which is healthy and brilliant."^[2]

Anyone who wishes may submit pictures for inclusion in the summer exhibition and those selected are displayed alongside the works of the Academicians. Many of the works are available for purchase.

The Friends of the Royal Academy is a charity founded by Sir Hugh Casson in 1977 to provide financial support for the Royal Academy and allow supporters unlimited access to the exhibition programme. Members of the public can join the Friends of the RA for £70 a year and receive many benefits such as unlimited entry to exhibitions with a family adult guest and up to four family children, use of the exclusive Friends Rooms, and the quarterly RA Magazine. Over the years the Friends scheme has grown in size and importance and in 2007 celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with almost 90,000 Friends.

In 2004, the Academy attracted press and media attention for a series of financial scandals and reports of a feud between Rosenthal and other senior staff that resulted in the cancellation of what would have been profitable exhibitions.^[3] In 2006, it attracted further press by erroneously placing only the support for a sculpture on display in the belief that it was the sculpture, and then justifying it being kept on display.^[4]

In September 2007, Charles Saumarez Smith became secretary and chief executive of the Royal Academy, a newly created post.^[5]

The Academy has received many gifts and bequests of objects and money. Many of these gifts were used to establish Trust Funds to support the work of the Royal Academy Schools by providing "Premiums" to students displaying excellence in various artistic genre. The rapid changes that pulsed through 20th century art have left some of the older prize funds looking somewhat anachronistic. But efforts are still made to award each prize to a student producing work that bears a relation to the intentions of the original benefactor.

On Thursday 8 December 2011 Christopher Le Brun was elected President of the Royal Academy upon the retirement of Sir Nicholas Grimshaw.

Royal Academy Schools[link]

The Royal Academy at Burlington House

The Royal Academy Schools form the oldest art school in Britain, and still offer the only 3-year postgraduate art course to students.

The Royal Academy Schools was the first institution to provide professional training for artists in Britain. The Schools' programme of formal training was originally modeled upon that of the French Académie de peinture et de sculpture, founded by Louis XIV in 1648, and shaped by the precepts laid down by Sir Joshua Reynolds. In his fifteen Discourses delivered to pupils in the Schools between 1769 and 1790, Reynolds stressed the importance of copying the Old Masters, and of drawing from casts after the Antique and from the life model. He argued that such a training would form artists capable of creating works of high moral and artistic worth. Professorial chairs were founded in Chemistry, Anatomy, Ancient History and Ancient Literature, the latter two being held initially by Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith.

In 1769, the first year of its existence, 77 students were enrolled into the Schools. By 1830 over 1,500 students had enrolled in the Schools giving an average intake of 25 students each year. They included men such as John Flaxman, J. M. W. Turner, Sir John Soane, Thomas Rowlandson, William Blake, Sir Thomas Lawrence, John Constable, Sir George Hayter, David Wilkie, William Etty and Sir Edwin Landseer. The term of studentship was at first six years. This was increased to seven years in 1792 and to ten in 1800 and it remained at ten till 1853. These figures must be regarded, however, only as years of eligibility. Undoubtedly many of the students did not complete their full term but there are no details of attendances at this early date or any record of the termination of studentships.

Teaching in the Royal Academy Schools was undertaken by a system of lectures delivered by Professors and Royal Academician 'Visitors'. Royal Academicians were elected as Visitors and served in rotation for nine months of the year. Each Visitor attended for a month, setting the models and examining and instructing the performances of the students. This system lasted through into the late 1920s when Visitors were replaced by permanent teachers.

The first woman to enrol as a student of the Schools was Laura Herford in 1860. Three more women enrolled in 1861 with a further three in 1862.

The Royal Academy has always provided free tuition to all its student. Tuition is given by practising artists, many of them Members of the Royal Academy, under the direction of the Keeper.

Today some 60 students study in the Schools on a three-year postgraduate course. The program is focused on studio-based practice across all fine art media. The studios accommodate a wide variety of disciplines, including painting, sculpture, print, installation and time-based and digital media. Selection of candidates is based upon evidence of individual ability and commitment, with an emphasis on potential for further development across the three-year tenure of the course. Students are given the opportunity twice each year to show their work in the Royal Academy.

Library, archive, and collections[link]

The Royal Academy has an important collection of books, archives and works of art accessible for research and display. A large part of these collections have been digitised and can be investigated through the Collection website. See External Links below.

The first president of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, laid the foundation of the Royal Academy collection with the gift of his famous Self-portrait. This was followed by gifts from other artists who founded the Academy, such as Gainsborough and Benjamin West. Subsequently each elected Member was required to donate an artwork (known as a Diploma Work) typical of their artistic output, and this practice continues today. These Diploma Works include sculpture by John Flaxman, Hamo Thornycroft and Phillip King and paintings by J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, Lawrence Alma-Tadema and David Hockney. Additional donations and purchases have resulted in a collection of approximately a thousand paintings and a thousand sculptures showing the linear development of a British School of art.

The Academy's collection of Works on Paper includes significant holdings of drawings and sketchbooks by artists working in Britain from the mid-18th century onwards including George Romney, Lord Leighton and Dame Laura Knight, as well as a large collection of engravings after the Old Masters, reproductive prints after all the leading British artists of the 18th and 19th centuries, and a growing collection of original prints by current Members of the Academy including Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, Tom Phillips, Jennifer Dickson and Norman Ackroyd.

The Library of the Royal Academy is the oldest institutional fine art library in Britain. For over 200 years it has served the needs of students and teachers in the Academy Schools and provided an important source for the history of British art and architecture. The Library contains some 65,000 books, including an Historic Book Collection of approximately 12,000 volumes, acquired before 1920, reflecting the early teaching philosophy of the Academy Schools.

The Archive forms one of the world’s most significant resources for the historical study of British art since 1768. It documents the activities of an institution that became a national arbiter of taste throughout the 19th century, acting as the primary venue for the exhibition of contemporary art and continuing to this day to run the oldest school of fine art in the country.

The Photographic Collection consists of 19th- and 20th-century photographs of Academicians, landscapes, architecture and works of art. Holdings include early portraits by William Lake Price dating from the 1850s, portraits by David Wilkie Wynfield and Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion: An Electrophotographic investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movement 1872–1885. In addition, there are over 55,000 photographs relating to the history of the Academy, from views of exhibition installations to images of the Academy's homes and its staff.

Walls and ceilings[link]

Amongst the paintings decorating the walls and ceilings of the building are those of Benjamin West and Angelica Kauffman, in the entrance hall (Hutchison 1968, p. 153), moved from the previous building at Somerset House. In the centre is West's roundel The Graces unveiling Nature c. 1779,^[6] surrounded by panels depicting the elements, Fire, Water, Air and Earth.^[7] At each end are mounted two of Kauffman's circular paintings, Composition and Design at the West end, and Painting or Colour and Genius or Invention at the East end.^[8]

Michelangelo's Taddei Tondo[link]

The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John

The most prized possession of the Academy’s collection is Michelangelo's Taddei Tondo, left to the Academy by Sir George Beaumont. The Tondo is on display in a purpose-built area on the Sackler Wing gallery level. Carved in Florence in 1504–06, it is the only marble by Michelangelo in the United Kingdom and represents the Virgin Mary and Child with the infant St John the Baptist.

Membership[link]

Membership of the Royal Academy is made up of up to 80 practising artists, each elected by ballot of the General Assembly of the Royal Academy, and known individually as Royal Academicians (R.A.). The Royal Academy is governed by these Royal Academicians.

The 1768, the Instrument of Foundation allowed total membership of the Royal Academy to be 40 artists. In 1853 membership was increased to 42 allowing Engravers to become members for the first time. The number of Royal Academicians was increased once again in 1972 to 50 and finally, in 1991, the maximum limit was set at 80 members. All Academicians must be professionally active, either wholly or partly, in the United Kingdom. Of the 80 Academicians, there must always be at least 14 sculptors, 12 architects and 8 printmakers with the balance being drawn from the painters category.

The category of Associate Member of the Royal Academy (A.R.A.) was introduced in 1769 to provide a means of pre-selecting suitable candidates to fill future vacancies among Academicians. Associate membership was abolished in 1991.

In 1918, it was decided that all Academicians and Associates on reaching the age of 75 become members of a Senior Order of Academicians so creating a vacancy in the other categories of membership. A senior member is effectively retired from the day to day government of the Academy but retains all other membership privileges.

All RAs are entitled to exhibit up to six works in the annual Summer Exhibition. They also have the opportunity to exhibit their work in small exhibitions held in the Friends' Room and are occasionally invited to hold major exhibitions in the Sackler Galleries. Many Academicians are involved in teaching in the Schools and giving lectures as part of the Royal Academy Education Programme.

List of RAs[link]

Some notable RAs are listed below. For a complete list go to the Royal Academy Collections Website

Presidents[link]

Keepers[link]

Other posts[link]

See also[link]

• 6 Burlington Gardens
• The Arts Club
• Royal West of England Academy
• Category:Members of the Royal Academy
• Cork Street, behind the Royal Academy, with many art galleries

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Leslie, George Dunlop. The inner life of the Royal Academy, with an account of its schools and exhibitions principally in the reign of Queen Victoria (John Murray, 1914)
• The history of the Royal Academy 1768-1968, Sidney C. Hutchison, Taplinger NY 1968

External links[link]

• Official website of the Royal Academy
• Official website of the Royal Academy Collection

 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Academy, Royal". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

v t e Museums and galleries in London National museums and galleries British Library British Museum Imperial War Museum Churchill War Rooms HMS Belfast National Army Museum National Gallery National Maritime Museum Queen's House Royal Observatory Natural History Museum National Portrait Gallery Science Museum Tate Tate Britain Tate Modern Victoria and Albert Museum Museum of Childhood Designated collections Courtauld Gallery Dulwich Picture Gallery Firepower – The Royal Artillery Museum Horniman Museum and Gardens Hunterian Museum Jewish Museum Kensington Palace (Dress collection) Library and Museum of Freemasonry London Transport Museum Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture Museum of London Museum of London Docklands Petrie Museum Sir John Soane's Museum English Heritage Apsley House Chiswick House Down House Eltham Palace Jewel Tower Kenwood House (Iveagh Bequest) London Wall Marble Hill House Ranger's House (Wernher Collection) Winchester Palace National Trust 2 Willow Road Blewcoat School Carlyle's House Eastbury Manor House Fenton House George Inn Lindsey House (restricted) Morden Hall Park Osterley Park Rainham Hall Red House Roman Baths Sutton House Other museums and galleries Barbican Art Gallery Bruce Castle Design Museum Estorick Collection Foundling Museum Freud Museum Garden Museum Geffrye Museum Guildhall Art Gallery Handel House Museum The Hayward Hogarth's House Institute of Contemporary Arts Leighton House Museum Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising Old Operating Theatre Queen's Gallery Royal Collection Royal Academy of Arts Royal Academy of Music Museum Saatchi Gallery Serpentine Gallery Sherlock Holmes Museum Wallace Collection Wellcome Collection Whitechapel Gallery William Morris Gallery Category Commons

v t e Art schools in the United Kingdom Art school List of art schools England London City and Guilds of London Art School Courtauld Institute of Art Goldsmiths, University of London Heatherley School of Fine Art Lambeth School of Art The Prince's Drawing School Putney School of Art and Design Ravensbourne Royal Academy Schools Royal College of Art UCL Slade School of Fine Art University of the Arts London Camberwell College of Arts Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Chelsea College of Art and Design Wimbledon College of Art Other The Arts University College at Bournemouth Cleveland College of Art and Design Coventry School of Art and Design Hereford College of Arts Liverpool John Moores University School of Art and Design Norwich University College of the Arts The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art University College Falmouth Northern Ireland   Scotland Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design Edinburgh College of Art Glasgow School of Art Gray's School of Art Leith School of Art Wales Cardiff School of Art & Design Category

Coordinates: 51°30′33″N 0°08′22″W / 51.50917°N 0.13944°W / 51.50917; -0.13944

Anish Kapoor
Born	(1954-03-12) 12 March 1954 (age 58) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Field	Sculpture
Training	Hornsey College of Art Chelsea School of Art and Design
Awards	Turner Prize 1991; Preamium Imperiale, 2011

Anish Kapoor CBE RA Padma Bhushan (born 12 March 1954) is an Indian-born British sculptor. Born in Mumbai,^[1][2] Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.

He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice Biennale in 1990, when he was awarded the Premio Duemila Prize. In 1991 he received the Turner Prize and in 2002 received the Unilever Commission for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Notable public sculptures include Cloud Gate, Millennium Park, Chicago, Sky Mirror exhibited at the Rockefeller Center, New York in 2006 and Kensington Gardens in 2010, Temenos, at Middlehaven, Middlesbrough, 'Leviathan'^[3] at the Grand Palais in 2011 and ArcelorMittal Orbit^[4] commissioned as a permanent artwork for the Olympic Park and due for completion in 2012.

Anish Kapoor was elected a Royal Academician in 1999^[5] and in 2003 he was made a Commander of the British Empire. In 2011 he was made a Commander in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and was awarded the Japanese Praemium Imperiale.

Biography[link]

Anish Kapoor was born in Bombay, India to a Jewish mother whose family immigrated from Baghdad when she was a few months old. “She had an Indian-Jewish upbringing. Her father, his grandfather, was the cantor in the synagogue in Pune. At the time, the Jewish community in Mumbai was quite large, mostly consisting of Baghdadi Jews.”^[6] His father, from a Hindu Punjabi family, was a hydrographer in the Indian Navy.^[7]

Kapoor spent his early years first in Mumbai, and then in Dehra Dun at the Doon School. In 1971-1973, he traveled to Israel with one of his two brothers, initially living on a kibbutz. He began to study electrical engineering,^[6][8] but had trouble with mathematics and quit after six months.^[9] In Israel, he decided to become an artist.^[10] In 1973, he left for Britain to attend Hornsey College of Art and Chelsea School of Art and Design.^[7] There he found a role model in Paul Neagu, an artist who provided a meaning to what he was doing.^[11] Kapoor went on to teach at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in 1979 and in 1982 was Artist in Residence at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. He has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s.^[5]

Artistic career[link]

Anish Kapoor became known in the 1980s for his geometric or biomorphic sculptures made using simple materials such as granite, limestone, marble, pigment and plaster.^[12] These early sculptures are frequently simple, curved forms, usually monochromatic and brightly coloured, using powder pigment to define and permeate the form. "While making the pigment pieces, it occurred to me that they all form themselves out of each other. So I decided to give them a generic title, A Thousand Names, implying infinity, a thousand being a symbolic number. The powder works sat on the floor or projected from the wall. The powder on the floor defines the surface of the floor and the objects appear to be partially submerged, like icebergs. That seems to fit inside the idea of something being partially there." ^[13] Such use of pigment characterised his first high profile exhibit as part of the New Sculpture exhibition at the Hayward Gallery London in 1978.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, he was acclaimed for his explorations of matter and non-matter, specifically evoking the void in both free-standing sculptural works and ambitious installations. Many of his sculptures seem to recede into the distance, disappear into the ground or distort the space around them. In 1987, he began working in stone.^[14] His later stone works are made of solid, quarried stone, many of which have carved apertures and cavities, often alluding to, and playing with dualities (earth-sky, matter-spirit, lightness-darkness, visible-invisible, conscious-unconscious, male-female and body-mind). "In the end, I’m talking about myself. And thinking about making nothing, which I see as a void. But then that’s something, even though it really is nothing." ^[15]

Since 1995, he has worked with the highly reflective surface of polished stainless steel. These works are mirror-like, reflecting or distorting the viewer and surroundings. Over the course of the following decade Kapoor's sculptures ventured into more ambitious manipulations of form and space. He produced a number of large works, including Taratantara^[16] (1999), a 35 metre tall piece installed in the Baltic Flour Mills in Gateshead, England before renovation began there and Marsyas (2002), a large work of steel and PVC that reached end to end of the 3,400-square-foot (320 m²) Turbine Hall of Tate Modern. A stone arch by Kapoor is permanently placed at the shore of a lake in Lødingen in northern Norway. In 2000, one of Kapoor's works, Parabolic Waters, consisting of rapidly rotating coloured water, was shown outside the Millennium Dome in London.

The use of red wax is also part of his repertoire, evocative of flesh, blood and transfiguration. In 2007, he showed Svayambh^[17] (which translated from Sanskrit means 'self-generated'), a 1.5 metre block of red wax that moved on rails through the Nantes Musée des Beaux-Arts as part of the Biennale estuaire; this piece was shown again in a major show at the Haus Der Kunst in Munich and in 2009 at the Royal Academy in London. Some his work blurs the boundaries between architecture and art. In 2008, Kapoor created Memory^[18] in Berlin and New York for the Guggenheim Foundation, his first piece in Cor-Ten, which is formulated to produce a protective coating of rust. Weighing 24 tons and made up of 156 parts, it calls to mind Richard Serra’s huge rusty steel works, which also invite viewers into perceptually confounding interiors.^[19]

In 2009, Kapoor became the first Guest Artistic Director of Brighton Festival. Kapoor installed four sculptures during the festival; Sky Mirror at Brighton Pavilion gardens, C-Curve^[20] at The Chattri, Blood Relations (a collaboration with author Salman Rushdie) and 1000 Names, both at Fabrica. He also created a large site-specific work titled 'The Dismemberment of Jeanne d’Arc'^[21] and a performance-based installation: ‘Imagined Monochrome’. The public response was so overwhelming that police had to re-divert traffic around C Curve at the Chattri and exercise crowd control.

In September 2009, Kapoor was the first living artist to have a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. As well as surveying his career to date it also included new works. On display were 'Non-Object' mirror works, cement sculptures previously unseen, and 'Shooting into the Corner'^[22] a cannon that fires pellets of wax into the corner of the gallery. Previously shown at MAK, Vienna in January 2009, it is a work with dramatic presence and associations and also continues Kapoor's interest in the self made object, as the wax builds up on the walls and floor of the gallery the work slowly oozes out its form.

In spring 2011, Kapoor's work, "Leviathan",^[3] was the annual "Monumenta" installation for the Grand Palais in Paris.^[23][24] Kapoor described the work as: "A single object, a single form, a single colour... My ambition is to create a space with in a space that responds to the height and luminosity of the Nave at the Grand Palais. Visitors will be invited to walk inside the work, to immerse themselves in colour, and it will, I hope, be a contemplative and poetic experience".

In 2011, Kapoor exhibited 'Dirty Corner'^[25] at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan. Fully occupying the site's 'cathedral' space, the work consists of a huge steel volume, 60 metres long and 8 metres high, that visitors enter. Inside, they gradually lose their perception of space, as it gets progressively darker and darker until there is no light, forcing people to use their other senses to guide them through the space. The entrance of the tunnel is goblet-shaped, featuring an interior and exterior surface that is circular, making minimal contact with the ground. Over the course of the exhibition, the work will be progressively covered by some 160 cubic metres of earth by a large mechanical device, forming a sharp mountain of dirt in which the tunnel appears to be running through.

Public commissions[link]

Turning the World Upside Down, Israel Museum, 2010

Kapoor's earliest public commissions include the Cast Iron Mountain at the Tachikawa Art Project in Japan, as well as an untitled work in Toronto. In 2001, Sky Mirror, a large mirror piece that reflects the sky and surroundings, was commissioned for a site outside the Nottingham Playhouse. Since 2006, Cloud Gate, a 110-ton stainless steel sculpture with a mirror finish, has been permanently installed in Millennium Park in Chicago. Viewers are able to walk beneath the sculpture and look up into an omphalos or navel above them.

In the autumn of 2006, a second 10 metre Sky Mirror, was installed at Rockefeller Center, New York. This work was later exhibited in Kensington Gardens in 2010 as part of the show 'Turning the World Upside Down' along with three other major mirror works.

ArcelorMittal Orbit , London Olympic Park , 2012

In 2009, Kapoor created the permanent, site-specific work 'Earth Cinema'^[26] for Pollino National Park, the largest national park in Italy, as part of the project ArtePollino – Another South.^[27][28] Kapoor's work, Cinema di Terra (Earth Cinema), is a 45m long, 3m wide and 7m deep cut into the landscape made from concrete and earth.^[27] People can enter from both sides and walk along it viewing the earth void within.^[28][29] Cinema di Terra officially opened to public in September 2009.^[27]

Kapoor was also commissioned to produce five pieces of public art by Tees Valley Regeneration (TVR), collectively known as the "Tees Valley Giants".^[30] The first of these sculptures, Tememos, was unveiled to the public in June 2010. Temenos stands 50 metres high and is 110 metres in length. A steel wire mesh pulled taught between two enormous steel hoops, it remains an ethereal and an uncertain form despite its colossal scale.

In 2010, Turning the World Upside Down, Jerusalem was commissioned and installed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The sculpture is described as a "16-foot tall polished-steel hourglass" and it "reflects and reverses the Jerusalem sky and the museum's landscape, a likely reference to the city's duality of celestial and earthly, holy and profane."^[31]

Also in June, Kapoor's "Orbit"^[4] was announced as the winning proposal for an artwork for the 2012 Olympic Games. The Greater London Authority selected Kapoor's sculpture from a shortlist of five artists as the permanent artwork for the Olympic Park. At 115 metres tall, Orbit will be the tallest sculpture in the U.K.

Soon to be completed is a granite monument to commemorate the British victims of 9/11 in New York’s Hanover Square.^[32]

When asked if engagement with people and places is the key to successful public art, Kapoor said,

Architectural projects[link]

Throughout his career, Kapoor has worked extensively with architects and engineers. Kapoor says this body of work is neither pure sculpture nor pure architecture. Notable architectural projects include:

• Ark Nova,^[34] an inflatable concert Hall that will travel around the earthquake struck regions of Japan. In collaboration with architect Arata Isozaki
• Orbit,^[4] the permanent artwork for the Olympic Park, in collaboration with engineer Cecil Balmond.
• "Temenos" the first work of the recently announced Tees Valley Giants, the world's five largest sculptures, in collaboration with Cecil Balmond. Temenos^[35] is situated in Middlehaven Dock, Middlesbrough.
• "Dismemberment Site 1",^[36] installed in New Zealand at the sculpture park known as "The Farm" and owned by New Zealand businessman and art patron Alan Gibbs.
• Leonard Street,^[37] New York, Collaboration with architects Herzog and de Meuron.
• Two subway stations in Naples at Monte San Angelo^[38] and Triano^[39] in collaboration with Future Systems.
• A proposal for the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain.
• "Taratantara"^[16] (1999–2000) was installed at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead and later at Piazza Plebiscito, Naples.
• An unrealised project^[40] for the Millennium Dome, London, (1995) in collaboration with Philip Gumuchdjian.
• "Building for a Void",^[41] created for Expo '92, Seville, in collaboration with David Connor.

Of his vision for the Cumana station in Monte Sant'Angelo, Naples, Italy under construction (as of June 2008), Kapoor has said:

Working with Text[link]

A collaboration with author Salman Rushdie, Kapoor for the first time conceived a mesmeric sculpture consisting of two bronze boxes conjoined with red wax and inscribed around the outside with the first two paragraphs of Rushdie's text; "Blood Relations"^[43] or an "Interrogation of the Arabian Nights" in 2006.^[44]

Other projects[link]

Kapoor has designed stage sets that include: the opera "Idomeneo" at Glyndebourne in 2003; Pelléas et Mélisande" for La Monnaie in Brussels, and a dance-theatre piece called "in-i" for Akram Khan and Juliette Binoche at the National Theatre in London.^[45]

Exhibitions[link]

Kapoor initially began exhibiting as part of New British Sculpture art scene, along with fellow British sculptors Tony Cragg and Richard Deacon.^[12] His first solo exhibition took place at Patrice Alexandra, Paris, in 1980.^[46] In 1992 Kapoor contributed to documenta IX with the Building Decent into Limbo.^[47] He achieved widespread recognition when he represented Britain at the 1990 Venice Biennale.^[48] Solo exhibitions of his work have since been held in the Tate and Hayward Gallery in London, Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland, Reina Sofia in Madrid, the National Gallery in Ottawa, Musee des arts contemporains (Grand-Hornu) in Belgium, the CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux, the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Brazil, and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, New York and Berlin. In 2008, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston exhibited Kapoor's first U.S. mid-career survey.^[49] That same year, Kapoor’s Islamic Mirror (2008), a circular concave mirror, was installed in a 13th-century Arab palace now being used as by the Convent of Santa Clara in Murcia.^[50] Kapoor was the first living British artist to take over the Royal Academy, London, in 2009;^[51] the show attracted 275,000 visitors, making it the most successful exhibition ever by a living artist in London.^[52] In 2010, Kapoor retrospective exhibitions were held at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi and Mumbai’s Mehboob Studio, the first showcase of his work in the country of his birth.^[53][54] In 2011 Kapoor has had a solo touring exhibition with the Arts Council, part of their "Flashback " series of shows. In May he exhibited "Leviathan" at the Grand Palais, and two con-current shows in Milan at the Rotunda di via Basana and Fabbric de Vappore.

Kapoor's gallery representations include the Lisson Gallery, London and the Gladstone Gallery, New York.

Collections[link]

Kapoor's work is collected worldwide, notably by the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Tate Modern in London; Fondazione Prada in Milan; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the Guggenheim in Bilbao; the De Pont Foundation in the Netherlands; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan; and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.^[5]

Awards[link]

Kapoor represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, 1990, where he was awarded the Premio Duemila. The following year, he won the prestigious Turner Prize. Kapoor was elected Royal Academician in 1999 and has been awarded Honorary Fellowships by the London Institute and Leeds University (1997), University of Wolverhampton (1999) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (2001).^[5] In October 2011 Kapoor was presented with the Praemium Imperiale in Tokyo City.^[55]

In 2012, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour.^{[56][57][58][59]}

Art market[link]

Kapoor made a $27 million profit in 2008, taking the fortune he has made from his art to an estimated $62.7 million.^[60] His record auction price is 1.94 million pounds, set in July 2008.

See also[link]

• Scheps v Fine Art Logistics Ltd

References[link]