Emma Nichols

Anish Kapoor, one of the most influential artists of his generation, produces enigmatic sculptural forms, which deal with concerns of human presence and perception. The themes that run through his work are the polars of presence and absence, being and non-being, existence of filled space versus the empty void. Kapoor says, I am doing the same things that I was doing when I thought it first possible to become an artist. Some interests have deepened but really the central issues have remained the same. This article will explore to what extent this is true, in light of Kapoors recent new exhibition showing at the Lisson Gallery and comparisons with his earlier works. The article will also draw conclusions about the success of Kapoors first collaboration with a literary figure, Salman Rushdie. Kapoor has always placed an emphasis on the psychological, believing that art is not about intellectual or theoretical activity, but deeply rooted within the self and his work has resonances of Freudian imagery. Do his works still have relevance for a modern viewer and are his contemplative objects as effective and innovative as they were when Kapoor was first breaking into the British art scene in the 1980s?

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