Anish Kapoor

Hayward Gallery, 30 April – 14 June 1998

Poster for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 (1998) by Hayward GalleryHayward Gallery

This exhibition was the first major showing of Anish Kapoor’s work in a public gallery. It featured over 20 large-scale works made since the 1990s, among them In the Beginning (1997) and When I am Pregnant (1992), as well as a number of new site-specific works that responded to the unusual architecture of the Hayward Gallery.

Exhibition Outline for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 (1998) by Hayward GalleryHayward Gallery

Early exhibition outline for Anish Kapoor's solo show at Hayward Gallery.

Press Release for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 Press Release for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 (1998) by Hayward GalleryHayward Gallery

Anish Kapoor described the exhibition – which took over the entirety of the gallery, including the sculpture terraces – as ‘like theatre, but not theatrical’. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue featuring an essay by Homi K Bhabha.

Lower Gallery Plan for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 (1998) by Hayward GalleryHayward Gallery

Rather than following a chronological order, the works in this exhibition unfolded as a sequence of discrete experiences. In the first gallery, visitors encountered My Body Your Body (1993), Iris (1998) and Suck (1998). ‘Together’, argued Hayward Gallery’s Martin Caiger-Smith, these three works 'evoke a sense of the presence of the body, and the entire space itself as a body.’ Turning the World Upside Down III (1996) was exhibited on one of the sculpture terraces.

Drawing of Anish Kapoor's Descent into Limbo (1992) for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 Drawing of Anish Kapoor's Descent into Limbo (1992) for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 (1992)Hayward Gallery

Image and drawing of Kapoor's Descent into Limbo (1992).

Exhibition Guide for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 Exhibition Guide for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 (1998) by Hayward GalleryHayward Gallery

In the exhibition guide Caiger-Smith describes the way in which Kapoor's disorientating site-specific works – At the Edge of the World II (1998) and Iris (1998) – appeared to grow out of the Hayward Gallery's walls and floors.

Marketing Leaflet for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 Marketing Leaflet for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 (1998)Hayward Gallery

Marketing leaflet for Anish Kapoor: Descent into Limbo.

Talks and Events Leaflet for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 Talks and Events Leaflet for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 (1998)Hayward Gallery

Talks and Events leaflet for Anish Kapoor at Hayward Gallery.

Press Cutting for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 (1998-04-26)Hayward Gallery

The exhibition received over 66, 000 visitors. For Richard Dorment, writing in the Daily Telegraph, Kapoor’s works, at their best, were enough to make him ‘almost die of pleasure.’

Press Cutting for Anish Kapoor, Hayward Gallery, 1998 (1998) by Hayward GalleryHayward Gallery

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