Anish Kapoor's Monumental Works Dominate Royal Academy

Anish Kapoor became the first living British artist to fill all galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, with an exhibition running from September 26 to December 11, 2009. Curated by Jean de Loisy, the show is not a retrospective but a selection tracing Kapoor's sculptural development. Highlights include 'Tall Tree and the Eye' (2009), a column of mercury-like spheres multiplying the Academy's classical proportions; 'Hive' (2009), a large rusted steel sculpture with a labial orifice that initially resembles a Richard Serra but reveals itself as a metal skin; 'Svayambh' (2007), a slowly moving red wax mass on rails that leaves sticky matter on doorways, evoking both horror and creation; and 'Shooting into the Corner' (2008-2009), where a cannon fires red wax pellets against a wall every twenty minutes. Also featured are 'Yellow' (1999), a velvet yellow cavity in the wall, and pigment works—small mounds of pure powder often linked to Indian spice markets but questioning being and non-being. Kapoor's non-objects, mirrors of multiple forms, explore similar themes. De Loisy promised that Kapoor's 2011 intervention at the Grand Palais in Paris would 'push the walls' of the venue.