WIth the 1990s, Kapoor's attentIon shIfts away from sculptural mass as a self-contaIned whole and toward the voId and depth sensed wIthIn or behInd the object. In thIs perIod he hollows out blocks of stone to create pIgment-lIned fIssures that draw the vIewer Into an unfamIlIar perceptual regIster. These sculptures also carry a fIguratIve rIchness of meanIng that can be lInked to spIrıtual experIence, and they stage a negatIve, hypothetIcal fIeld of darkness that unsettles ordInary depth perceptIon. The artIst appears to be concerned, In effect, wIth a metaphysIcal voId sItuated beyond the vIsIble.

Anish Kapoor recasts the full arc of his artistic development, restaging its various phases within a conceptual deepening and a distinctly Post-Minimalist sensibility. In his expansive exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, the artist surveys the successive stages of his practice, Pigment, Void, Mirror, Darkness, and Body, offering an occasion to consider these phases alongside his newest works: pieces that gather momentum from questions of illusion and reflection, that are crowned by a trajectory of monumental spatial and public commissions, and that have since taken on an increasingly grotesque character shaped by mystical resonances. (1)

the visibility of an interior darkness

Looking back, it becomes clear that Kapoor’s early work of the 1980s consisted largely of sculptural arrangements built from geometric or organic forms. Coated entirely in pure, saturated pigment, these sculptures rest on a single premise: that the boundary of the object should be rendered indeterminate, or that the object should define itself from the inside outward, generating its own presence.

With the 1990s, Kapoor’s attention shifts away from sculptural mass as a self-contained whole and toward the void and depth sensed within or behind the object. In this period he hollows out blocks of stone to create pigment-lined fissures that draw the viewer into an unfamiliar perceptual register. These sculptures also carry a figurative richness of meaning that can be linked to spiritual experience, and they stage a negative, hypothetical field of darkness that unsettles ordinary depth perception. The artist appears to be concerned, in effect, with a metaphysical void situated beyond the visible.

mirrored surfaces: perfect and distant

The 2000s mark a distinct phase that consolidated Kapoor’s international recognition. In this period, defined by chrome-plated stainless-steel sculptures of near-flawless metallic finish, the artist advances a set of striking phenomenological inquiries into the contradictions of visual representation, staged through the optical interplay of polished surfaces. Rational, spectacular design is here completed by the formlessness of irrational reflection. What is more, the images that surface on these ceaselessly transforming surfaces either invert, fracture, or disperse.

This pleasurable oscillation between abstraction and resemblance unfolds as a mysterious dialogue, submerged in the glimmers exchanged between our bodies and the world around us. Realized through polished stainless steel, projects such as Cloud Gate and Sky Mirror, both widely celebrated in this phase, effectively turn space inside out: they bring the sky down to the ground and return the viewer’s own presence to them within a distorted reality.

Kapoor’s monumental sculptures, built from concave and convex mirrors that probe the interplay of mass and void, attract comparable attention while provoking a distinct unease. It may be for this reason that these works, which seem to carry a destabilizing aura, are followed by sculptures fashioned from natural materials such as sandstone or alabaster, each pierced by an enigmatic hollow.

Around this time, Kapoor’s artistic use of Vantablack, a substance that absorbs almost all visible light, seems to bring his pursuit of absolute void to its furthest extreme. As seen in Non-Object Black (2019), this application, a flat, circular void of pure black that entirely erases the viewer’s sense of dimension and depth when viewed frontally, renders three-dimensional objects as if they were flat, two-dimensional openings. Viewed from the side, however, the same objects reveal themselves as projecting outward. Regardless of the surface to which it is applied, Vantablack presents a visuality in which the sensation of infinity and depth generates no perception of dimension whatsoever. The singular illusion of depth this pigment produces is an experience that overturns our prior capacity for visual perception.

dark matter: the body, meat and blood as waste

In Kapoor’s most recent installations, the enigmatic mountain-peak forms rendered in sandstone and fiberglass, together with the dense masses of soiled, sludge-like material scattered across the space, appear to mark the beginning of a new trajectory tied to religious association. Moving away from the sterile surface of the mirrors and turning toward more biological, raw themes, the artist now deploys red not merely as pigment but as a color evoking blood, flesh, and viscera, combined, as in works such as Svayambhu or Shooting into the Corner, with moving mechanisms that extrude vast masses of waste-like matter. This approach, concerned directly with the violence of bodily existence, carries a disquieting, even jarring character that unsettles the viewer as well.

Within this context, three monumental installations demonstrate the state this new trajectory has arrived at, each functioning as an exercise in claustrophobia: All of Nothing (2026), a red PVC membrane positioned at the entrance to the Hayward Gallery; Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto (2022), an inverted mountain suspended from the ceiling; and Ha Makom (2026), which likewise depicts a mythic mountain peak.