Six Secret Places

Anish Kapoor has called himself "a painter who is a sculptor." His work fuses Eastern and Western cultural traditions, evoking beliefs, passions, and experiences that are both immanent and transcendent.  Six Secret Places consists of six organic forms inspired by the elemental forms of fire, water, seeds, flowers, fruit, and mountains.  Pouring vibrant, dry pigments over these color-infused forms, the artist symbolically anoints or consecrates them, evoking holy and mythic meaning.  This practice has its origin in the Hindu worship and fertility rituals of Kapoor's native India. 

Six Secret Places affirms the artist's involvement with "places of power." In Kapoor's personal color symbology, yellow corresponds to desire, while red symbolizes generative masculinity.  The tautly defined forms are similarly energized.