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Lot Essay
Anish Kapoor's 1000 Names emerges from the wall, its primal form reverberating in a radiant coat of ultramarine pigment. Executed in 1982, it is part of his first series of pigment works undertaken from 1980-1985 of the same name. 'It occurred to me that they [the works] form themselves out of each other,' Kapoor said of his series, 'so I decided to give them a generic title, 1000 Names, implying infinity, a thousand being a symbolic number' (A. Kapoor, quoted in G. Celant, Anish Kapoor, Milan 1998, p. XII).
Inspired by the artist's visit to his native India in 1979, the early part of the series was represented by large, often geometric shapes surrounded by aureoles of raw pigment, conveying a sense that they were 'partially submerged, like icebergs'. Organically evolving, by 1982 these shapes had lost their halos of raw pigment, expanded their environment to inhabit walls and become more varied, exploring a vast range of shapes from the amorphous to the suggestive to the symbolic. Recalling the generative form of the sacred Hindu Yoni, the shape of 1000 Names suggests origins of life, birth and creation and encapsulates the artist's interest in the dualities between space and void, light and dark, creation and destruction.
The ethereal nature of the pigment in 1000 Names echoes Kapoor's belief in the spiritual qualities of colour. For the artist, the colour blue is transcendental, and in its optical density, the ultramarine pigment of 1000 Names can be seen as an homage to the mystical power of colour and its ability to create a sense of metaphysical transformation. Indeed the tactile nature of the pigmented surface presents an unstable, seemingly porous epidermis that simultaneously floats above and intrinsically forms the volume of the object. Evoking an optical vibration that is paralleled in the undulating contours of the object's form, the sculpture thereby appears to oscillate between materiality and immateriality.
Inspired by the artist's visit to his native India in 1979, the early part of the series was represented by large, often geometric shapes surrounded by aureoles of raw pigment, conveying a sense that they were 'partially submerged, like icebergs'. Organically evolving, by 1982 these shapes had lost their halos of raw pigment, expanded their environment to inhabit walls and become more varied, exploring a vast range of shapes from the amorphous to the suggestive to the symbolic. Recalling the generative form of the sacred Hindu Yoni, the shape of 1000 Names suggests origins of life, birth and creation and encapsulates the artist's interest in the dualities between space and void, light and dark, creation and destruction.
The ethereal nature of the pigment in 1000 Names echoes Kapoor's belief in the spiritual qualities of colour. For the artist, the colour blue is transcendental, and in its optical density, the ultramarine pigment of 1000 Names can be seen as an homage to the mystical power of colour and its ability to create a sense of metaphysical transformation. Indeed the tactile nature of the pigmented surface presents an unstable, seemingly porous epidermis that simultaneously floats above and intrinsically forms the volume of the object. Evoking an optical vibration that is paralleled in the undulating contours of the object's form, the sculpture thereby appears to oscillate between materiality and immateriality.