Anish Kapoor's Controversial Mini-Bean Sculpture Unveiled in New York

Anish Kapoor's latest sculpture, dubbed Mini-Bean, has been completed at 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca, Manhattan, though it will not be officially named until its spring inauguration. The nearly six-meter-tall reflective work bears an immediate resemblance to Kapoor's iconic Cloud Gate (the Bean) in Chicago's Millennium Park, a comparison that has historically irked the artist. Integrated into the Jenga Tower luxury condominium designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the 40-ton sculpture is composed of 38 steel plates with visible seams, a technical departure from Cloud Gate's seamless construction, partly due to a rupture during fabrication caused by sun exposure. Costing between $8 and $10 million and built over four years spanning the pandemic, the work has drawn long queues of tourists and residents eager for selfies. Critics, however, have panned it as evidence of declining public art quality in New York and of Kapoor's compromised recent output. The sculpture is mounted on a system of cables and springs allowing limited movement in response to temperature, wind, and snow, intended to withstand harsh North American winters. Its placement at the base of the Jenga Tower—whose 60 luxury units are all sold, with Kapoor reportedly purchasing one for over $13.5 million—has been criticized as a tool for real estate speculation, as only those apartments offer a complete view of the piece from their private balconies.