Renaissance architecture and iconic sculptures AnishKapoor may seem to have little in common. But the team at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy, sees a strange connection between the two and decided to bring them together.
The result is a solo solo exhibition titled “Untrue Unreal”. It presents a wide range of works from across Kapoor's oeuvre, including those on a monumental scale. The show transforms the historic site into a space for contemplation, inviting the public to dive into a realm where the perception of truth becomes an illusion.
“Kapoor maintained a direct dialogue with Renaissance architecture. The result is totally original, almost a kind of dialectical juxtaposition, where symmetry, harmony and rigor are questioned and the boundaries between material and immaterial dissolve”, Arturo Galansino, general director of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation and curator of the exhibition, noted in a statement.
“Amidst the rational geometries of Palazzo Strozzi, Kapoor invites us in this exhibition to lose ourselves and rediscover ourselves, leading us to question what is false or unreal.”
The exhibition highlights the internationally acclaimed artist's ongoing experimentation with materiality, space, form and color, between the Piano Nobile galleries and the Renaissance courtyard. Among the highlights are “To Reflect an Intimate Part of the Red” (1981), a landmark piece from the initial phase of Kapoor’s career; “Non-Object Black” (2015), which challenges the viewer's perception through the use of Vantablack, a material that absorbs more than 99.9% of visible light; and “Void Pavilion VII” (2023), a work on a new architectural scale designed for the site’s Renaissance courtyard.
Source: Artnet News