Anish Kapoor: Early Works
Showcasing Anish Kapoor’s rarely seen pigment sculptures from the 1970s and 1980s, this exhibition marks the first U.S. museum presentation dedicated to the artist’s early work.
On view at the Jewish Museum from October 24, 2025 through February 1, 2026, Anish Kapoor: Early Works presents rarely seen works from the trailblazing artist, highlighting Kapoor’s striking pigment sculptures, along with works on paper and the artist’s sketchbooks.
Through some 55 works—sculptures, drawings, and goaches—Early Works foregrounds Kapoor’s early and ongoing investigations of the boundaries of sculpture, color, and form. Displaying the artist’s pigment sculptures in richly hued and evocative groupings, along with select examples of his more recent sculptures created with Vantablack, a nanotechnological substance that absorbs nearly all light, the exhibition showcases Kapoor’s masterful play with perception, drawing on the psychic effects of color—and its absence—as well as the allure of objects that appear to defy their own material nature.
Born in Mumbai, India in 1954 and following a time in Israel in the early 1970s, Kapoor moved to England to study art. Since his first solo exhibition in 1980, he has gone on to become one of the most internationally recognizable artists working today.
This exhibition is organized by the Jewish Museum’s Senior Deputy Director and Susan and Elihu Rose Chief Curator Darsie Alexander and Leon Levy Associate Curator Shira Backer, in close collaboration with the artist and his studio.

Anish Kapoor, Part of the Red, 1981, mixed media, pigment, 28.3 × 118.1 × 157.5 in. (72 × 300 × 400 cm). © Anish Kapoor. All Rights Reserved, DACS, London/ ARS, NY 2025