Anish Kapoor moved to the UK in the 1970s to study art. Born in Bombay to a Jewish mother and Hindu father, Kapoor decided to become an artist while studying to be an engineer in Israel. He left for the UK in 1973 to attend the Hornsey College of Art, followed by a time at the Chelsea School of Art and Design. He’s lived and worked in London ever since. Kapoor’s works often cross the boundaries between art and architecture. His free-standing sculptures and installations are often large pieces, displayed in public places. These include ‘Taratantata’, which is on show at the Baltic Flour Mills in Gateshead in northern England. The work is 35 metres high and created out of polished stainless steel. Another of his steel constructions is ‘Marsyas’, a 3,400 square feet piece on display at the Tate Modern on London’s south bank. It is three steel rings combined by PVC membrane.
Key themes in Anish Kapoor’s art include polarities: light/dark, male/female, conscious/unconscious and so on, nothingness or non-matter and transfiguration. His sculptures can often seem to disappear or fall away into the distance. He has won several honours including the Turner Prize for contemporary art in 1991, a knighthood in 2013 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2014.
