Anish Kapoor’s Leviathan

It’s true. We will always have Paris. But Anish Kapoor’s temporary exhibition at the Grand Palais is cause for placing a rush order on that summer holiday. Kapoor’s work, titled “Leviathan,” is exactly that — a monster of a sculpture, rising to fill the vaulted nave of the building with disturbing ease. It was commissioned by the French Ministry for Culture and Communication for the four-year-old series, Monumenta. This will be the first exhibition in Paris for the Bombay-born, London-raised artist in 30 years.

Ten, or maybe even five years ago, you could have said that Anish Kapoor was an artist’s artist. Today, he’s widely recognized around the world, thanks in part to a number of large scale works in some prominent places. In 2004, he won over Chicagoans with his shining Cloud Gate in Millennium Park and has delighted his native London with installations at the Tate Modern and, most recently, Kensington Gardens.

For many reasons, public art is a tricky endeavor. Just ask Kapoor’s Monumenta predecessor, Richard Serra. So that this artist is able to simultaneously please highfalutin critics (for the most part) and those of us in the civilian category is commendable.

From the outside, “Leviathan” looks like a cluster of swollen eggplants in preparation for the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, their hollow forms still tethered to the earth. In fact, the sculpture is much more weighty than it first appears. It has been constructed out of hundreds of yards of PVC stretched over metal frames. Unlike Cloud Gate, which invites viewers to engage with a surface and ponder the limitless expanse of blue sky, Leviathan asks visitors to consider the concept of volume. You can explore its insides, which feel very much like insides, emptiness enveloped by a sangria-colored pall.

The installation, on view until June 23rd, may not be well-suited to claustrophobes, but promises to be please most other visitors to the Grand Palais this summer.

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