Etchings

In the late 1980s, Anish Kapoor began experimenting with printmaking, turning to the etching technique to portray abstract voids on handmade paper. In a process that can last several months and dozens of trips to the studio, Kapoor uses several techniques to create a finished etching, layering his freely etched prints with additional color deposits from aquatint plates, spit bite plates, or acid washing. The end product calls to mind TV static, primordial cells, or cosmic dust—familiar yet intangible, seeming to morph into new forms before one’s eyes. “The void is not silent,” he says. “I have always thought of it more and more as a transitional space, an in-between space.” Ranging from dark abstractions to bright bursts of color, Kapoor’s most celebrated series of etchings include 15 Etchings (1996), Blackness from her Womb (2000), 12 Etchings (2004), Shadow (2007–12), and Fold (2014–16).