Untitled

Throughout history, numerous artists have taken a spiritual and mystical approach towards art. Cimabue, Caspar David Friedrich and Mark Rothko all share an ability to produce a continuous metamorphosis of the universe, turning the artistic process into a ritual that transforms life into images. The Indian born artist Anish Kapoor can be counted among such artists, although for him, unlike his illustrious predecessors, it is the 'form' more than image which takes centre stage. Germano Celant explains: "For Anish Kapoor, the magic of artmaking lies in continually rethinking and representing the exemplary act of creating a universe." (G. Celant, 'Anish Kapoor', Milan 1996, p. XI).
'Untitled' (1985) is an excellent example of the artist's work with universal forms. A particularly large work of this period, it has a geometrical and even rigid presence. At the same time, it also has a strong sexual iconography, being simultaneously phallic and vaginal, with the vaginal reading intimating the possibility of creation or maternity. Germano Celant compares these works to wombs or locus: "As the locus - the feminine locus - of mystery and enigma, the place of the unmanifest and the unknown." (ibid., p. XXVII). The artist's interest in this subject can be traced back to Indian mythology, where the goddess of the vagina, 'Kali' is worshipped by way of direct, isolated imagery of the female generative organ.