In Autumn 2019
Anish Kapoor will have his first large-scale solo exhibition
In CAFA Art Museum and the Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum.
Anish Kapoor，Sectional Body Preparing for Monadic Singularity, 2015，P.V.C and steel，7.3 x 7.3 x 7.3m，Photo: Tadzio，© Anish Kapoor, 2019. All rights reserved
About the Exhibition
As one of the world’s most influential artists, Anish Kapoor is invited to hold a double solo exhibition at CAFA Art Museum and the Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum in Beijing in Autumn 2019. This will be the first large-scale solo exhibition of this prestigious British artist in China.
Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA)’s President Fan Di’an will be the academic adviser for this exhibition, with CAFA’s Vice President Su Xinping and Serpentine Galleries’ Artistic Director Hans Ulrich-Obrist being the artistic directors, and CAFA Art Museum’s Director Zhang Zikang being the chief curator. The exhibition is co-organized by CAFA Art Museum, the Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum and Anish Kapoor’s Studio, and mainly sponsored by CAFA and Beijing General Labor Union.
On May 14, during the opening ceremony of Anish Kapoor’s exhibition in Lisson Gallery, London, Sir Kapoor and CAFA Art Museum Director Zhang Zikang announced the artist’s solo exhibition, which will begin in October, 2019. It will be the first time that many Kapoor’s series works are exhibited in China. According to Director Zhang, Mr. Kapoor, as a reputable contemporary art master, creates artworks with strong on-site emotional appeal, while conveying an “oriental spirit” that Chinese audience feel specially attached to. India and China, as two historically profound civilizations, have shared and accumulated thoughts and values via age-old exchanges. This is fully shown in Mr. Kapoor’s artistic concepts and practices. Like an old Chinese saying “Stones from Other Hills May Serve to Polish the Jade of This Hill” goes, Mr. Kapoor’s exhibition will inspire Chinese people on how to transfer rich essence of traditional Chinese thoughts into contemporary forms.
The Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum, located in close proximity to the Forbidden City, was once taken by emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties as a place for ancestor worships. Now, as a public exhibition venue, it attracts nearly 10 million visitors every year. The Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum is composed of substantial architectures and enclosed courtyard, emitting a magnificent and solemn atmosphere. CAFA is the only institution of higher education for fine arts under the administration of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. Its museum is the first professional exhibition hall established after new China was founded. It was renamed as CAFA Art Museum in 1998, and got its new building designed by Pritzker Laureate Arata Isozaki in 2008. It is one of the Key National Museums of China. The upcoming Anish Kapoor exhibition in China will kindle unprecedented dialogues between the artist’s artworks and CAFA Art Museum’s contemporary space and the magnificent historical architectures of the Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum.
The exhibition will be presented by Zhonghong Chuangyi (Beijing) Culture Development Co., Ltd. Lisson Gallery also offers special support to the exhibition.
About the Artist
Anish Kapoor
Photo: Jillian Edelstein
Anish Kapoor was born in Bombay, India in 1954, now lives and works in London. He received his BA and MA degrees at Hornsey College of Art (1973-77) and Chelsea School of Art and Design (1977-78) in London. In 1990, he represented Britain at the XLIV Venice Biennial, and was awarded the Premio Duemila Prize, and received the Turner Prize in the next year. His recent solo exhibitions include: “Works Thoughts, Experiences”, the Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal (2018); “Descension”, Public Art Fund, Brooklyn Bridge Par, New York (2017); UNAM Museum of Contemporary Art, Mexico City (2016); Sainte Marie de La Tourette, Lyon, France (2015); Chateau de Versailles (2015); Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow (2015-2016), etc. His large-scale public art projects include: Marsyas (Tate Modern, London, 2001), Cloud Gate (Millennium Park, Chicago, 2004), Temenos (Middlesbrough, UK, 2010), Leviathan (Grand Palais, Paris, 2011), ArcelorMittal Orbit (Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, 2012), and the world's first inflatable mobile concert Ark Nova (Japan, 2013).
About CAFA Art Museu
The CAFA Art Museum’s history can be traced back to the early 1950s. Originally named “CAFA Exhibition Hall”, it was the first professional art museum after the People Republic of China was founded. In October 2018, the new museum building, designed by noted Japanese architect and Pritzker laureate Arata Isozaki, opens to the public. It was listed as Key National Museum by the Ministry of Culture in 2010. The CAFA Art Museum is a professional and international modern museum that integrates academic research, exhibition, collection and repair, and public education. It upholds an all-embracing academic idea that links the past and the future, serves the society with intellectual knowledge, devotes itself to the construction of contemporary cultural public space, showcases our civilization and art with a novel vision, and shares the culture of our time with the society.
About Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum
The Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum is located in Tai Temple, a 600-year-old temple that represents the highest standard of ancient Chinese architecture. It is the embodiment of magnificence, solemn history, rich culture and spirit of the time. It inherits its history as a place of ancestral worships for the imperial family of the Ming and Qing dynasties, while embracing fine art and culture of the new era.
The museum is co-operated by Beijing General Labor Union, Beijing Working People’s Cultural Palace and CAFA. It integrates multiple functions including exhibition, collection, research, public education and international exchange. It keeps to the goals of socialization, professionalism and public welfare, and continues perfecting its operation and organization structure, planning and executing all kinds of culture and art programs.
