St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

The Latin word basilica (derived from Greek, βασιλική στοά, Royal Stoa, the tribunal chamber of a king), was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.

The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes. The remains of a large subterranean Neopythagorean basilica dating from the 1st century AD were found near the Porta Maggiore in Rome in 1915. The stuccoes on the interior vaulting have survived, though their exact interpretation remains a matter for debate. The ground-plan of Christian basilicas in the 4th century was similar to that of this Neopythagorean basilica, which had three naves and an apse.

After the Roman Empire became officially Christian with the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, the term, by extension, came to refer specifically to a large and important church that has been given special ceremonial rights by the Pope. Thus the word retains two senses today, one architectural and the other ecclesiastical.

Modern basilicas constructed in the 20th century have become major Catholic pilgrimage sites, receiving tens of millions of visitors per year.^[1][2] In December 2009 the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe set a new record with 6.1 million pilgrims during Friday and Saturday for the anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe.^[3]

Basilica of St Vitus and Mother Mary in Brezje (Slovenia)

Architecture[link]

Remains of the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in Rome. The building's northern aisle is all that remains.

Floor plan of the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine

The Roman basilica was a large roofed hall erected for transacting business and disposing of legal matters. As early as the time of Augustus, a public basilica for transacting business had been part of any settlement that considered itself a city, used in the same way as the late mediaeval covered market houses of northern Europe, where the meeting room, for lack of urban space, was set above the arcades, however. Although their form was variable, basilicas often contained interior colonnades that divided the space, giving aisles or arcaded spaces on one or both sides, with an apse at one end (or less often at each end), where the magistrates sat, often on a slightly raised dais. The central aisle tended to be wide and was higher than the flanking aisles, so that light could penetrate through the clerestory windows.

The oldest known basilica, the Basilica Porcia, was built in Rome in 184 BC by Cato the Elder during the time he was Censor. Other early examples include the basilica at Pompeii (late 2nd century BC).

Probably the most splendid Roman basilica (see below) is the one begun for traditional purposes during the reign of the pagan emperor Maxentius and finished by Constantine I after 313 AD.

Basilicas in the Roman Forum[link]

• Basilica Porcia: first basilica built in Rome (184 BC), erected on the personal initiative and financing of the censor Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Elder) as an official building for the tribunes of the plebs
• Aemilian Basilica, built by the censor Aemilius Lepidus in 179 BC
• Julian Basilica, completed by Augustus
• Basilica Opimia, erected probably by the consul Lucius Opimius in 121 BC, at the same time that he restored the temple of Concord (Platner, Ashby 1929)
• Basilica Sempronia, built by the censor Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 169 BC
• Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine (built between 308 and 312 AD)

Palace basilicas[link]

In the Imperial period, a basilica for large audiences also became a feature in the palaces. In the 3rd century AD, the governing elite appeared less easily in the forums. "They now tended to dominate their cities from opulent palaces and country villas, set a little apart from traditional centers of public life. Rather than retreats from public life, however, these residences were the forum made private." (Peter Brown, in Paul Veyne, 1987). Seated in the tribune of his basilica, the great man would meet his dependent clientes early every morning.

A private basilica excavated at Bulla Regia (Tunisia), in the "House of the Hunt", dates from the first half of the 5th century. Its reception or audience hall is a long rectangular nave-like space, flanked by dependent rooms that mostly also open into one another, ending in a semi-circular apse, with matching transept spaces. The "crossing" of the two axes was emphasised with clustered columns.

Christianisation of the Roman basilica[link]

Floor plan of a Christian cathedral, with the transept shaded.

In the 4th century, once the Imperial authorities had decriminalised Christianity with the 313 Edict of Milan, and with the activities of Constantine the Great and his mother Helena, Christians were prepared to build larger and more handsome edifices for worship than the furtive meeting-places (such as the Cenacle, Cave-churches, House churches such as that of the roman consuls John and Paul) they had been using. Architectural formulas for temples were unsuitable, for their pagan associations, and because pagan cult ceremonies and sacrifices occurred outdoors under the open sky in the sight of the gods, with the temple, housing the cult figures and the treasury, as a backdrop. The usable model at hand, when Constantine wanted to memorialise his imperial piety, was the familiar conventional architecture of the basilicas.^[4] These had a central nave with one aisle at each side and an apse at one end: on this raised platform sat the bishop and priests. Constantine built a basilica of this type in his palace complex at Trier, later very easily adopted for use as a church. It is a long rectangle two storeys high, with ranks of arch-headed windows one above the other, without aisles (there was no mercantile exchange in this imperial basilica) and, at the far end beyond a huge arch, the apse in which Constantine held state. Putting an altar instead of the throne, as was done at Trier, made a church. Basilicas of this type were built in western Europe, Greece, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine, that is, at any early center of Christianity. Good early examples of the architectural basilica include the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (6th century AD), the church of St Elias at Thessalonica (5th century AD), and the two great basilicas at Ravenna.

Old St Peter's, Rome, as the 4th century basilica had developed by the mid-15th century, in a 19th-century reconstruction

The first basilicas with transepts were built under the orders of Emperor Constantine, both in Rome and in his "New Rome", Constantinople:

"Around 380, Gregory Nazianzen, describing the Constantinian Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, was the first to point out its resemblance to a cross. Because the cult of the cross was spreading at about the same time, this comparison met with stunning success." (Yvon Thébert, in Veyne, 1987)

Thus, a Christian symbolic theme was applied quite naturally to a form borrowed from civil semi-public precedents. The first and oldest known Christian basilica is that of St John Lateran, which was given to the Bishop of Rome by Constantine right before or around the Edict of Milan in 313 and was consecrated in the year 324. In the later 4th-century, other Christian basilicas were built in Rome: Santa Sabina, and St Paul's Outside the Walls (4th century), and later St Clement (6th century).

Constantine's basilica at Trier

A Christian basilica of the 4th or 5th century stood behind its entirely enclosed forecourt ringed with a colonnade or arcade, like the stoa or peristyle that was its ancestor or like the cloister that was its descendant. This forecourt was entered from outside through a range of buildings along the public street. This was the architectural ground-plan of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, until in the 15th century it was demolished to make way for a modern church built to a new plan.

In most basilicas, the central nave is taller than the aisles, forming a row of windows called a clerestory. Some basilicas in the Caucasus, particularly those of Georgia and Armenia, have a central nave only slightly higher than the two aisles and a single pitched roof covering all three. The result is a much darker interior. This plan is known as the "oriental basilica".

Gradually, in the early Middle Ages there emerged the massive Romanesque churches, which still kept the fundamental plan of the basilica.

Basilicas in Eastern Orthodoxy[link]

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the basilica is a mere architectural description of churches built in the ancient style. It bears no significance with regard to precedence or importance of the particular building or clerics associated with it. Eastern basilicas may be single-naved, or have the nave flanked by one or two pairs of lower aisles; it may have a dome in the middle: in this case it is called a "domed basilica".

Ecclesiastical basilicas[link]

The Papal Basilica of St Francis of Assisi

The Early Christian purpose-built basilica was the cathedral basilica of the bishop, on the model of the semi-public secular basilicas, and its growth in size and importance signalled the gradual transfer of civic power into episcopal hands, which was under way in the 5th century. Basilicas in this sense are divided into classes, the major ("greater") basilicas and the minor basilicas; there are three other papal and several pontifical minor basilicas in Italy, and over 1,400 lesser basilicas around the world.

Churches designated as papal basilicas, in particular, possess a papal throne and a papal high altar, at which no one may celebrate Mass without the pope's permission.^[5]

Numerous basilicas are notable shrines, often even receiving significant pilgrimages, especially among the many that were built above a confessio or the burial place of a martyr – although this term now usually designates a space before the high altar that is sunk lower than the main floor level (as in the case in St Peter's and St John Lateran in Rome) and that offer more immediate access to the burial places below.

Ranking of churches[link]

Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis, MN. The first Basilica established in the United States and Co-Cathedral (with the Cathedral of Saint Paul) of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

The papal or major basilicas outrank in precedence all other churches. Other rankings put the cathedral (or co-cathedral) of a bishop ahead of all other churches in the same diocese, even if they have the title of minor basilica. If the cathedral is that of a suffragan diocese, it yields precedence to the cathedral of the metropolitan see. The cathedral of a primate is considered to rank higher than that of other metropolitan(s) in his circonscription (usually a present or historical state). Other classifications of churches include collegiate churches, which may or may not also be minor basilicas.

Major or papal basilicas[link]

To this class belong only the four great papal churches of Rome, which among other distinctions have a special "holy door" and to which a visit is always prescribed as one of the conditions for gaining the Roman Jubilee. Upon relinquishing in 2006 the title of Patriarch of the West, Pope Benedict XVI renamed these basilicas from "Patriarchal Basilicas" to "Papal Basilicas".

• St John Lateran, also called the Lateran Basilica, is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.
• St Peter's Basilica, also called the Vatican Basilica, is a major pilgrimage site, built over the burial place of Saint Peter.
• St Paul Outside the Walls, also known as the Ostian Basilica because it is situated on the road that led to Ostia, is built over the burial place of Paul the Apostle.
• St Mary Major, also called the Liberian Basilica because the original building (not the present one) was attributed to Pope Liberius, is the largest church in Rome dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The four papal or major basilicas were formerly known as "patriarchal basilicas". Together with the minor basilica of St Lawrence outside the Walls, they were associated with the five ancient patriarchal sees of Christendom (see Pentarchy): St John Lateran was associated with Rome, St Peter's with Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), St Paul's with Alexandria (in Egypt), St Mary Major with Antioch (the Levant) and St Lawrence with Jerusalem.

Minor and immemorial basilicas[link]

The privileges attached to the status of minor basilica, which is conferred by papal brief, include a certain precedence before other churches, the right of the conopaeum (a baldachin resembling an umbrella; also called umbraculum, ombrellino, papilio, sinicchio, etc.) and the bell (tintinnabulum), which are carried side by side in procession at the head of the clergy on state occasions, and the cappa magna which is worn by the canons or secular members of the collegiate chapter when assisting at the Divine Office.^[5] In the case of major basilicas these umbraculae are made of cloth of gold and red velvet, while those of minor basilicas are made of yellow and red silk—the colours traditionally associated with both the Papal See and the city of Rome.

Tintinnabulum and conopaeum, one of the privileges granted to a basilica

There are four "pontifical" minor basilicas in the world (the word "pontifical" meaning "papal", referring to the title pontifex maximus): Pontifical Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, the Pontifical Basilica of Saint Nicholas in Bari, the Pontifical Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, the Pontifical Basilica of the Holy House at Loreto, the Pontifical Basilica of St Michael in Madrid, Spain.

Until Pope Benedict XVI, the title "patriarchal" (now "papal") was officially given to two minor basilicas^[7] associated with Saint Francis of Assisi situated in or near his home town:

• Papal Basilica of St Francis of Assisi
• Papal Basilica of St Mary of the Angels in Portiuncola.

The description "patriarchal" still applies to two minor basilicas^[7] associated with archbishops who have the title of patriarch: the Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of St Mark in Venice and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia.

Not all Patriarchal cathedrals are minor basilicas, notably: the Patriarchal Cathedral of St Mary Major in Lisbon, Portugal, the Patriarchal Cathedral of Santa Catarina, Old Goa, India.

Basilicas and pilgrimages[link]

The Basilica of Divine Mercy, constructed in 2002 received 2 million pilgrims in 2011.^[1]

In recent times, the title of minor basilicas have been traditionally attributed to important pilgrimage Roman Catholic churches. In 1999 Bishop Francesco Giogia stated that the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City (constructed in the 20th century) was the most visited Catholic shrine in the world, followed by San Giovanni Rotondo and Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil.^[2] Millions of pilgrims visit the shrines of Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima. Pilgrimage basilicas continue to attract well over 30 million pilgrims per year.^[2]

Every year, on May 13 and October 13, the significant dates of the Fatima apparitions, pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima with crowds that approach one million on each day.^[8] In December 2009 the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe set a new record with 6.1 million pilgrims during Friday and Saturday for the anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe.^[3]

See also[link]

• Architecture of cathedrals and great churches
• Cathedral
• Duomo
• List of basilicas
• Roman architecture
• Roman Catholic Marian churches

Christianity portal

Sources and references[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Basilicas

• Krautheimer, Richard (1992). Early Christian and Byzantine architecture. New Haven: The Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-05294-4 
• Architecture of the basilica, well illustrated.
• Basilica Porcia
• W. Thayer, "Basilicas of Ancient Rome": from Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby), 1929. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (London: Oxford University Press)
• Paul Veyne, ed. A History of Private Life I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium, 1987
• Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador

 Gietmann, G. and Thurston, Herbert (1913). "Basilica". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up basilica in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Panoramic interior of the Basilica Santa Maria della Querica
• List of All Major, Patriarchal and Minor Basilicas & statistics by Giga-Catholic Information

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]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anish Kapoor

• Anish Kapoor Official Site
• Lisson Gallery: Anish Kapoor
• Barbara Gladstone: Anish Kapoor
• Anish Kapoor on Artcyclopedia
• The Orbit Project for the London Olympics 2012.
• Leviathan Monumenta 2011, Grand Palais, Paris.
• Marsyas About Kapoor's 2002 installation piece in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall.
• Cloud Gate Images and description of Kapoor's public sculpture at Millennium Park, Chicago.
• Sky Mirror Website with images and articles on Kapoor's public sculpture in Nottingham, England
• BBC Hardtalk Gavin Esler interviews Anish Kapoor for BBC World (TV), Nov. 11, 2006.
• Boston ICA Details and images of Kapoor's exhibit at the ICA.
• Anish Kapoor in Brighton The Fabrica Blog for Anish Kapoors involvement in Brighton Festival, details, critique, images and further links.
• Anish Kapoor's 2009 exhibition at the Royal Academy. Includes videos
• In conversation with John Tusa BBC Radio 3.
• Anish Kapoor's 2009 installation Earth Cinema