The cosmic paradox of Anish Kapoor

David McAllister | Prospect | 12th September 2026

After Kapoor’s high-profile summer show, this piece tries to get inside his “impersonal” sculptures. He insists they have nothing to do with his Indian/British identity nor the materials he uses. Instead, his work aims to establish “that strange in-betweenness, between nothingness and eternal possibility” The fundamental question, he says, is whether the object ‘holds any poetic value”. Is that quality planned or accidental? Says Kapoor, “of course, it’s a bit of both”.