ART'S MOST INFLUENTIAL

WIELDING IMMENSE INFLUENCE OVER THE INDIAN ARTSCAPE, THESE MEN AND WOMEN HAVE MADE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES AS OUR NATION’S ART COGNOSCENTI. FROM PRIVATE COLLECTORS TO INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS, GALLERISTS TO TASTE-MAKERS, THESE SELECT FEW DICTATE WHAT’S IN AND WHAT’S OUT. HELLO! TAKES A LOOK AT THE LIVES AND JOURNEYS OF THIS SMALL GROUP THAT CAN TRULY BE CONSIDERED THE ORIGINAL ‘INFLUENCERS’ OF OUR AGE

- NOOR ANAND CHAWLA & VISHWAVEER SINGH

ANISH KAPOOR

ARTIST LONDON

Possibly one of the most recognised Indian-born contemporary artists on the international scene, Anish Kapoor’s journey into art began in Israel, where he moved in 1971, living in a kibbutz with one of his brothers. As his career graph rose upward, Kapoor gained fame for his geometric designs in granite, marble, limestone and plaster. His sculptures soon started taking on a larger-than-life persona, sometimes melding into the background of a scenic surrounding. Kapoor was commissioned for such seminal installations as ‘Turning The World Upside Down’ by the Israel Museum in 2010 and then for the ‘ArcelorMittal Orbit’ in 2012. The artist went on to receive several accolades for his OTT works, even exhibiting his work ‘Dirty Corners’ at the Palace of Versailles. “What we know as the real world isn’t so real,” Kapoor shared in an interview. “That objects are often not described by their physical or apparent physical realities. So void objects, negative spaces, involuted, upside-down, inside out — those are things that seem to occur and reoccur for me.”

KIRAN NADAR

COLLECTOR & FOUNDER, KIRAN NADAR MUSEUM OF ART NEW DELHI