The Shape of Meaning: Anish Kapoor's S-Curve

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WASHINGTON IS KNOWN for its many memorials and stone-carved symbols of greatness. While the city's landmarks suitably inspire, they have over time more or less blended into the background — the Washington Monument notably excepted.

Were it made a permanent part of the local landscape, the recently installed sculpture at the Sackler Gallery by acclaimed Indian-born artist Anish Kapoor would not likely suffer the same fate. On display now through mid-July, Kapoor's 2006 "S-Curve," consisting of two large connected contoured bands of highly polished steel, has an awesome physical presence and reflective effect that forces an instant readjustment of the viewer to his or her environment. And because it sits just off the ground, it almost appears as if to float.

Like his colossal bean-shaped "Cloud Gate," which looms over Chicago's Millennium Park, Kapoor's "S-Curve" is dumbfounding in that you can't miss it, but neither can you grasp its essential nature without a closer look. Seeing oneself and surroundings distorted through its 7-foot-high, 16-foot-long luminescent frames, one wonders what is on exhibit here, the object or the space in which it exists — or both.

Renowned for his subtle use of pure form, Kapoor transforms immaterial objects into miraculous, transformative art that simply cannot be ignored, and "S-Curve" — installed in the gallery's entrance pavilion — loudly crashes the Sackler's permanent collection of classical and ancient masterworks.

A leading sculptor of his generation, Kapoor first rose to prominence in the 1980s using powder pigment to cover small, understated constructions in vivid color. The U.K.-based artist's most recent works are much larger, monochrome and mirror-like, reflecting Kapoor's growing interest in spacial perception and duality. The convex-concave motif of "S-Curve" may raise such questions, but it is eye-exciting wonderment at its core.

» Sackler Galler, 1050 Independence Ave. SW; through July 19, free; 202-633-1000. (Smithsonian)

Photo Courtesy John Tsantes/Sackler Gallery
Written by Express contributor Johnathan Rickman