Houghton Hall and Anish Kapoor

Houghton Hall

I was briefly in East Anglia and took the opportunity to visit Houghton Hall, which was hosting an exhibition of Anish Kapoor sculptures (also some sketches which he does on playwood). I liked the mirrors. His big bits of stone made into geometric or abstract shapes were notable in size and presence, but left me mostly unmoved.

There were some other modern sculptures; the skyspace, a cabin with a hole in the roof to frame the sky was good, and being easily impressed by gimmicks I did like the waterflame. In fact the walled garden was very impressive and I had some affection for the neo-Roman sculptures scattered about (also some actual Roman ones indoors).

As for Covid, we were mostly outdoors, and with everyone ticketed in advance, social distancing was not a problem. The handful of indoor spaces were efficiently stewarded. Entry into the two open rooms of house (with some of the Kapoor sculptures) is only by stairs, accessible entry closed by Covid for the moment. We were delayed getting there thanks to a diversion and had to queue for more than half an hour to get in and be given our Covid instructions.

The Anish Kapoor exhibition runs to the end of October.