There are plenty of Kapoor’s paradoxical black sculptures in his new Venetian show of around 70 works, arranged across two venues in the city. The exhibition – his first important retrospective, apart from one in Beijing three years ago, since his popular solo show at the Royal Academy in 2009 – is a big moment for the 68-year-old artist, not least because the second setting, near the ghetto in Cannaregio, is a dilapidated palazzo, around the corner from the low-slung train station, which Kapoor’s foundation acquired three years ago. Slowly, it is being transformed into a cultural centre, due to open in 2024 – although the renovations still have a way to go. 

But, because they’re new, Kapoor’s cryptic black sculptures are grabbing all the attention. Downstairs in the Accademia’s temporary exhibition spaces (Kapoor is the first Brit invited to show at the gallery), there’s an entire room of them, all seemingly sprouting various shapes, including diamonds and elongated doorknobs, as well as humps. 

Are they gimmicky? Perhaps. A strand of Kapoor’s oeuvre, predicated upon optical illusions, has always had a funfair quality, and these black sculptures, which make me think of 1980s executive toys, certainly belong to it. Yet, they’re also in a perpetual state of “becoming” – which, sculpturally, is a considerable invention: by offering objects that appear to be simultaneously flat and not flat, Kapoor presents a serious conundrum. The chief frustration is that, to preserve the density of the pigment, the works are boxed inside vitrines, and the reflections in the cases’ surfaces prove distracting.