Anish Kapoor is a self-identified “difficult bugger” and needless to say, his work tends to live up to that reputation.

Kapoor has ascended to the acme of superstar artist over the span of a lengthy and prosperous career. In fact, Kapoor received the Turner Prize in 1991 and was even knighted in 2013! This Indian-born, London-native was not always a hotshot urbanite though, in fact he spent a period of his life getting back to his roots and living on a kibbutz in Israel.

Over the span of Kapoor’s industrious career, he has explored many topics ranging from the spiritual to the grotesque, but he consistently seems to exhibit an odd obsession with the interior of both objects and people, which he attributes to being in psychotherapy for over twenty years. Surely this and his vaginal works would have made Freud proud.

That said, his work can be a bit racy. His exhibitions are often accompanied by warnings at the front door proclaiming that the work might not be suitable for young impressionable audiences, which is understandable since a sizable portion of Kapoor’s repertoire consists of bloody, fleshy representations that would not be ideal for the faint of heart.  

Kapoor has also managed to nab himself some haters in a very interesting way. While the art world is rife with disputes, this one in particular exemplifies just how contentious and spiteful the our illustrious creators can be. A new pigment called Vantablack has recently been developed that is the blackest material in the universe, besides a black hole. Kapoor felt such a kinship with the color that he purchased the exclusive rights to the pigment, meaning no other artists are capable of using it. Many artists now hold a serious gripe with him for they feel it is completely ridiculous and in turn, one artist took the matter into his own hands. Stuart Semple developed the world’s pinkest pink pigment and offers it to all artists except for Kapoor, who is legally banned from using it. In fact, when one purchases this pigment, they must sign a legal agreement saying they are not Anish Kapoor or working with Kapoor. Ultimately though, Kapoor still got his hands on the pigment and posted a picture of his middle finger dipped in it and is flipping the bird to the camera. Can you say petty?

This is not the only dispute the Kapoor found himself in recently. A sculpture by Kapoor can be found in the Garden of Versailles and has created so much controversy that it has been dubbed the distasteful name of “The Queen’s Vagina.” The public seems to think that Kapoor is a dirty perv due to his sculpture that is may or may not look slightly like a vagina. Because artists have never depicted vaginas in art before…