Kapoor and Me, Now and Then
Intersections with the works of Anish Kapoor…
I remember my first essay as an artist about an artist. Sure, I did art before college but that elective step into post-compulsory education in art is a good marker-point of when I self-declared commitment to being an artist, for real. It was one of the first college trips to London and of course we had a ‘suggested’ itinerary plus a written assignment. The main essay was to be about an artwork of our choice, experienced first-hand, at the impressive and important exhibition simply known as The Sculpture Show.
In retrospect, I can see why the tutors ensured we made the train journey down from ‘The North’ to see what was the biggest exhibition of work by contemporary sculptors ever held in Britain. I certainly didn’t realise at the time what a historic exhibition it was, though I did appreciate its scale, presenting the work of more than 50 artists. Some were already well-established ‘crowd-pleasers’ that had been in the national news. Others were emergeant and yet to become important. At the time, nearly all of them were new to me. The show occupied both the Serpentine South Gallery and the Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre, plus larger works outside in the immediate surroundings, mainly Kensington Gardens. The exhibition ran from 13 August to 9 October, 1983.
