The Art Of Anish Kapoor's 'Cloud Gate'

793 Words2 Pages

Christmas 2012, my mother and I visited family in Chicago and during our trip, we took a day to see the sites of the city. There were many sculptures to view but the one that particularly caught my eye was located in the Millennium Park, known as “The Bean” or Cloud Gate. This well known sculpture was made by Indian-born Anish Kapoor. Kapoor was born March 12, 1954 in Mumbai, India to Punjabi and Iraq-Jewish parents. (6) He moved to London in 1973 to study at the Hornsey College until 1977 where he went to the Chelsea School of Art for one year. In the 1980’s, Kapoor started to become recognized for his sculptures and installations while he began to use materials such as stone, aluminum and resin. Kapoor was honored with the Turner Prize for contemporary art in 1990 after being represented by Great Britain at the Venice Biennale. (6) The 21st century was the beginning of Kapoor’s large in scale career and his unique use of form, space, and materials. 2004 marked the year where Chicago gained a new piece of art that changed people’s view of the city and was Kapoor’s first public piece in the states. Kapoor designed and created the sculpture called Cloud Gate or its adopted name of “The Bean”. The price of the sculpture ended up to be 23 million dollars and it was made in California, taken apart, and then shipped to Chicago in July of 2004. (1)
Description:
(Art Processes) The Cloud Gate was first rejected by the city of Chicago but now is loved by the tourists and the city. It is made of 168 stainless steel plates, its dimensions are 33 ft. X 66 ft. X 42 ft., and weighs 110 ton. (4) Kapoor teamed up with British engineering firm Atelier One, Performance Structure Inc., and a free lancer by the name of Chris Jones to build “The ...

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...y textbook and was immediately excited because I went somewhere well-known and it is a highlight spot of Chicago. I honestly didn’t even know that Cloud Gate was the sculptures formal name until I started this paper. Anish Kapoor is an artist who makes sculptures that viewers have to observe from a number of angles to get a full aspect of his intentions. Several of Kapoor’s art pieces are extreme sizes with a wow factor. Kapoor really wanted to have the viewer think both the relation of space and time when walking under the navel of the art. The use of the stainless steel plates creates the reflection of whatever the viewer’s eyes perceive to intake. Instead of using colors, patterns or different forms, Kapoor used the smooth surface of the Cloud gate to distort the perception of the viewer in a way were each time you look at “The Bean”, it is truly never the same.

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