CONCEPTUALIZE THIS: THE LIFE AND ART OF ANISH KAPOOR
Sir Anish Kapoor, born in Mumbai India in 1954, is a British sculptor recognized for his abstract biomorphic forms fabricated in many different media. He is the first living artist to be given a solo show at the Royal Academy of Arts, London and in 1990 he represented Britain in the prestigious Venice Biennale. The following year he received the “Turner Prize”. In 2006, The Bean, a 110-ton stainless steel sculpture with a mirror finish, officially titled Cloud Gate, was permanently installed in Millennium Park in Chicago. A favorite tourist attraction, viewers are able to walk beneath the sculpture and look up into a bellybutton or "omphalos" above them.
In 2013 Kapoor received his knighthood and in 2017 he received the $1 Million Genesis Prize for "being one of the most influential and innovative artists of his generation and for his many years of advocacy for refugees and displaced people".
HOLD ON TO YOUR SOCKS!: THE ART OF THE CHAPMAN BROTHERS
The English Chapman Brothers understand the manipulation of cultural memes – cultural habits of thought. The Chapman Brothers’ art lets us explore the darker side of today’s culture of manipulation and violence as a means of reassessing where we are as a society. Their art takes us down an untypical path but the thing that binds everything together is humor, albeit a dark kind of humor.
IT’S MORE THAN JUST A BOUQUET: What’s Inside a Nederlandish Still Life
In 17th C Netherlands, artists were able to support themselves by supplying the newly developed bourgeoise economy with affordable commercial art. No more “the art of the Court”, Still Lifes became a significant part of the everyday reality portraying the exotic fruits and flowers brought home by Holland’s far-reaching mercantile navy. The 16th and 17th centuries saw Dutch painting in full bloom.