“The traditional sublime is the matte surface, deep and absorbing, and [the] shiny might be a modern sublime, which is fully reflective, absolutely present, and returns the gaze.”
— Anish Kapoor

With its glossy, royal blue surface, renowned British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor’s Untitled seduces the viewer into irresistibly hypnotising realms. Executed in 2001, the present work is an immersive example of the highly recognisable reflective circular sculptures that have become almost synonymous with the Turner Prize-winning artist’s practice, with similar pieces now housed in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and High Museum of Art in Atlanta, amongst others.

Anish Kapoor reflected in one of his works, Vertigo, 2016
Photo by Jonathan Wong

Enveloping the viewer into its flawless surface, Untitled serves as a portal for the meeting of the physical and limitless worlds. Looking into the delicately concave arcs of the work, our usual perceptions seem to subside as although the mirrored dish brings the both the viewer and surrounding environment into focus, everything takes on a distorted appearance in its coloured, flipped and proportion-bending reflection.

Known structures do not hold as the familiar becomes ambiguous, evoking a dazzling optical effect of continuous and fluctuating space that destabilises all senses of reality. As critical theorist Homi K. Bhabha explains, ‘Kapoor stays with the state of transitionality, allowing it the time and space to develop its own affects - anxiety, unease, restlessness - so that viewing becomes part of the process of making the work itself. The spectator’s relation to the object involves a process of questioning the underlying conditions through which the work becomes a visual experience in the first place.’ⁱAs the eye is drawn into the metallic centre of the present work’s abyss, details are captured and cast in a poetic transience of colours, alluding us to the endless nature of visual possibilities.

“In music, light blue is like a flute, dark blue like a cello, and when still darker, it becomes a wonderful double bass. The deepest and most serene form of blue may be compared to the deep notes of an organ.”
— Wassily Kandinsky
- Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa, circa 1830-1832
  Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Sassoferrato, The Virgin in Prayer, 1640-1650
  Collection of The National Gallery, London
- Pablo Picasso, La Célestine (La femme à la taie) (La Celestina), 1904
  Collection of Musée Picasso, Paris
- Yves Klein, Relief Éponge bleu sans titre (RE 49), 1961
  Sold by Phillips, New York on 18 May 2022 for US$19,999,500
- Henri Matisse, The Conversation, 1908-1912
  Collection of the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
- Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889
  Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City‎
- Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa, circa 1830-1832
  Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Sassoferrato, The Virgin in Prayer, 1640-1650
  Collection of The National Gallery, London
The colour blue is an enchanting constant in Kapoor’s oeuvre. It is a multifaceted colour that alters the mood of a work with just a slight tweak in tone and surficial treatment, and has famously evoked a variety of expressions throughout the course of art history – from its use by ancient Egyptians to Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period. Simultaneously calming and mysterious, the reflective jewel-toned blue in Untitled immediately engages the viewer into otherworldly depths as all sense of the self dissolves. As the Italian art historian and critic Germano Celant notes, ‘the enormous mass of blue, and the object’s concave shape, create a kind of vertical abyss, capturing energy and pulling in the observer’s gaze, if not his entire body.’ⁱⁱ Like a black hole turned inside out, Untitled perfectly portrays Kapoor’s mastery of capturing the infinite in a finite existence.

With works by the artist highly sought after, included in prestigious institutional collections and private hands, Kapoor has been the subject of extensive solo exhibitons around the world throughout his career. As the first British artist to be honoured with a major, dual-gallery exhibition at the Gallerie dell'Accademia and Palazzo Manfrin in Venice, an important retrospective is currently on show in conjunction with the opening of the 59^th Venice Biennale, running until 9 October 2022.

Installation view of Anish Kapoor, Sky Mirror, 2018 at Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, 2022
Photo by David Levene

ⁱHomi K. Bhabha cited in ‘Making Emptiness’, in exh. cat., London, Hayward Gallery, Anish Kapoor, 1998, p. 14

ⁱⁱGermano Celant, Anish Kapoor, Germano Celant and Anish Kapoor, eds., Milan, 1998, p. 30
- Provenance
  Lisson Gallery, London
  Acquired from the above by the present owner