Shine 2012 – Anish Kapoor (Photo by Zoer)
After that Royal Academy show, then perplexing the parakeets by scattering Kensington Gardens with giant dishes, discs and distorting mirrors, there was the Orbit, the Olympic Park’s very own helter-skelter. Release from The Project meant that “Anish Kapoor – Now What?” could be answered on Tuesday night at the Lisson Gallery, not too far from the Edgware Road. Early October is Frieze London, the art fair that attracts international galleries – and more crucially – international collectors. Some might want a six foot hemisphere of perfect, uncompromising colour; a green or violet or gold so intense you can get lost in it. Yours for £200,000, someone whispered. Or was it £400,000? Or £800,000? Each. Not that this has put anyone off – Kapoor is one of the world’s most collectible artists. Among the gallery scrum, talk wasn’t of the exhibits or the prices but of The After Party – invitations to which were that night’s equivalent of Willy Wonka’s Golden Tickets. A few hours later somewhere near the Ritz, all that held back a crowd of hundreds verging on the hysterical, was a velvet rope and two meaty taking-no-shit doormen. An elegant man carrying a wine-glass was ordered back inside by them. Despite being perhaps in need of fresh air – or a smoke in the fresh air, which is the least he deserved – Anish Kapoor did as he was told.
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