A year ago, the first outdoor sculpture in New York by the artist Anish Kapoor was unveiled at 56 Leonard Street, at the intersection of Leonard and Church Street in Tribeca, to a somewhat indifferent public. The collective shrug, which resonated throughout both arts and city reportage, was rather surprising: in one sense, because this was a major public sculpture produced by a major contemporary artist, subject to a long period of gestation, and, in another, because the sculpture itself was startlingly conspicuous – a massive, mirrored form visible from several blocks away. Yet a sort of bland innocuity, something reminiscent of the museum gift shop, clung to the sculpture, as would the imprints of grubby hands and a chalky efflorescence left by rain. A naming ceremony was announced at the time, but it never took place. In the months that followed, the sculpture was spared not only a name, but also any attempt to make sense of it, even the usual, hand-wringing concerns about art thru…
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