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Accepted Paper:

Anish Kapoor and his interpreters  
Denis Vidal (IRD/Paris Diderot/EHESS)

Paper short abstract:

taking as a case study Anish Kapoor and his work, I will show how the figure of the 'great artist' and of the 'universal artist', may-be redefined and sustained in the contemporary world, sometimes with the help of the very people that one rather associates with the critique of such categories.

Paper long abstract:

Anish Kapoor and his interpreters

Denis Vidal

The artwork of Anish Kapoor has attracted a lot of attention almost from the start, not only from the general public, but also from art critics, museum curators and well-known intellectuals all over the world. By analysing the nature of the relationship that Anish Kapoor has developed with his interpreters over the years- both through his art works and through his writing - I will explore the nature of the contradictory demands and expectations made on contemporary artists in the global art world today, especially when they happen to come from a country like India. The study of the answers that an artist like him gives to such demands helps us to understand from an anthropological perspective, how in spite of well developed critiques of the stereotypes linked to the figures of the "great artist ยป or of "the universal artist", such a figure may be redefined and sustained in the contemporary world, often with the help of the very people that one rather associates with the critique of such categories .

Panel P19
Anthropology in the contemporary artworld
  Session 1