Orbit Sculptor Kapoor Wants More Arts Funding

While more and more Britons are visiting galleries across the UK, Turner Prize winner Anish Kapoor believes the Government is failing to support the arts.

Millions now flock to the Tate and other galleries. They want to experience art and it's becoming more accessible all the time, something Anish says is "astonishing".

He expressed dismay that the Government doesn't invest in or appreciate the arts enough, a sector he sees as the lifeblood of the country.

"It's interesting that the Government pays no attention to culture. Why - I don't understand. They meet with bankers every day of the week. It doesn't make sense," he said.

"The Arts Council is being decimated and money is being taken away from the arts all the time. It's madness - it will lead to a decline in our cultural industries. It's one of the things Britain is brilliant at."

Anish has been exposed to a totally new audience thanks to his commission called Orbit, which stands tall in London's Olympic Park.

As with most public statues reviews have been mixed, something Anish told me he understands.

"I think it's important with a big national event, a world event like the Olympics, that the public are in a way challenged to look at something in different ways.

"Orbit is not something that reveals itself from one perspective, it's a rather awkward object. You have to walk around it and it reveals itself in different ways. It's an invitation to engage in a slightly difficult, but I hope enduring, process.

"Now it's a new addition to London's skyline ... it's always going to be controversial - and perhaps its awkwardness makes it moe controversial.

"I feel like that's correct. There will be those that like it and those that don't, and that's OK."

So why is this new exhibition important? Ben Luke, the art critic for the Evening Standard, says Anish is one of the central artists in the world, and his latest show at the Lisson Gallery reaffirms him as an artist who explores new areas and is still experimenting.

"Anish Kapoor is one of the most brilliant manipulators of visual, optical, physical experience," he said.

"It's so fantastic that you come into the gallery and you know the work will have a massive effect on you, it's going to push you in ways you wouldn't expect.

"He's a brilliant visual artist and one that we continue to find interesting."

I'll leave the last word on why art itself matters to the man himself.

"Culture is one of the things that gives us a sense of belonging, a sense of citizenship. It's fundamental to who we are as a society," he said.

And if that doesn't make you want to go to a gallery, I don't know what will!