The London-based artist Anish Kapoor follows in the footsteps of Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami with a new exhibition of work due to open next year at the Palace of Versailles outside of Paris. The director of the 17th-century château, Catherine Pégard, told The International New York Times that the show will open next June 2015 and run until October of the same year. Previous commissions by Kapoor include Leviathan, a gigantic installation made from 18 tonnes of PVC for the Grand Palais in Paris.
Sir Anish Kapoor, CBE RA was born 12 March 1954 and is an Indian sculptor. Born in Bombay, the artist has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s where he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and thenat the Chelsea School of Art and Design. The artist represented Britain in the XLIV Venice Biennale in 1990, when he was awarded the Premio Duemila Prize.
Kapoor, who also won the Turner Prize in 1991, was selected “because he has something particular to say in this setting,” Pégard stated to the press. A spokeswoman at the palace confirmed that the exhibition is due to go ahead. The previous director, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, launched the contemporary programme at Versailles in 2008 with an exhibition of works by Jeff Koons, which proved to be highly controversial. Takashi Murakami and the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos were also previous artist’s included in exhibition.
According to the Lisson Gallery in London, which represents the artist, Kapoor is “perhaps most famous for public sculptures that are both adventures in form and feats of engineering.” Together with the engineer Cecil Balmond, Kapoor designed the 114.5 metre-tall ArcelorMittal Orbit tower in London’s Olympic Park.
In 2011, the “Monumenta” commission at Paris’s Grand Palais was awarded to the artist, who created Leviathan, a gigantic installation made from 18 tonnes of PVC. The sculpture cost £2.3 million to build, and was seen by 277,687 viewers during its six-week period of display.