Solicitations - Asking For It - The Violations of Anish Kapoor's Dirty Corner

Aug 26, 2026

Analyzes Anish Kapoor’s temporary Versailles sculpture Dirty Corner, focusing on how its funnel-like form and openly sexual interpretation triggered media and public controversy. Connects Kapoor’s stated aim to “bring it into the conversation” with broader historical meanings surrounding Marie Antoinette’s alleged “vulvalike” imagery. Explores the influence of late 18th-century pornographic pamphlets (1787–1792) that circulated among court society and then the general public, using satirical sexual allegories, illustrated content, and the pun “res publica” to blur private and public, shaping reception before and during the French Revolution.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Solicit: Asking For It

Dirty Corner in Versailles

Sexual controversy and reception

Marie-Antoinette pamphlets and “res publica”

Solicitations, or, Asking For It: The Violations ofAnish Kapoor's Dirty Corner Solicit: vb [ME soliciten to disturb, take charge of, fr. MF , fr. L solicitare to disturb, fr. solicitus anxious, fr. sollus whole (fr. Oscan; akin to Gk holos whole) + citus, pp. Of ciere to move.--Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary ‘I hope it’s a mess. That’s whatI’m after. It’s also very sexual. It’s taking all those things LeNôtre has hidden —that ordered space, it hides nature, it hides everything. This is an attempt to bring it into the conversation.’ --British artist Anish Kapoor describing his sculpture installed in the (otherwise highly ordered) Gardens of Versailles, summer of 2015. In the summer of 2015, British artist Anish Kapoor was invited to create a temporary public art work in the gardens of Versailles, the comprising six large sculptures. The fifth installation in the series, Dirty Corner, a funnel-shaped steel sculpture surrounded by large slabs of stone, measured 200 feet long and 33 feet high. The not quite abstract representation was admitted by Kapoor to be ‘very sexual.’ More specifically, he described it as ‘…a big vulvalike form sitting watching’ and ‘the vagina of the queen coming into power.’(Martinez, 2015) Dirty Corner was site specific: Kapoor wanted to introduce a piece of art which messed with the order of Versailles itself—in true Marie Antoinette fashion. (Embed from Getty Images<script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'XVUhvYOxRtZfcfPOkuLSQg',sig:'2RI7D5GmIwaMYR_hc4Se2-1feWbAklVwz6WAadIPGjI=',w:'594px', h:'396px',items:'475978086',caption: true ,tld:'[co.uk](co.uk)',is360: false })});</script><script src='//[embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async></script>)](embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async></script>)) Kapoor seemed to express surprise at the need to defend the sculpture against the attention paid by the press to the explicitness of Dirty Corner’s sexual expression: ‘A work has multiple interpretive possibilities…inevitably, one comes across the body, our bodies and a certain level of sexuality. But it is certainly not the only thing it isabout,’ Kapoor told the BBC,(Sayej, 2015) perhaps disingenuously. The artist underestimated the repercussions of displaying what was read unequivocally as a giant vagina. His deflection of the primacy of the sculpture’s sexuality also disclaims and disavows the historical context of the discursive impact of Marie Antoinette’s vagina, namely, the context which on some level acted as the conditioning predecessor to the reception, if not the production of, Dirty Corner: the 18th-century pornographic pamphlets produced between 1787 and 1792 that dramatised the salacious sexual exploits of Queen Marie-Antoinette in the court of Versailles. These pamphlets circulated first through the court society and, within several years, increased their circulation into the general French public. With pamphlet titles such as The Libertine and Private Life of Marie-Antoinette; The Uterine Furors of Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI; The Royal Dildo; The Austrian Woman on the RAMPAGE, or the Royal Orgy; and The Royal Bordello (Thomas, 2001), it is difficult to ignore the fact that the figure of the Queen’s open vagina was part of general public discursivity, claimed as public property, during pre-Revolutionary and then Revolutionary France. Additionally, the pamphlets were illustrated. Vivian Cameron explains how the very name circulating at the time for the Queen’s genitals as reinforced by the pamphlets, ‘res publica’, is the Latin word for ‘republic’. One of the most repeated poses ofthe p

FAQs

What sculpture is discussed and why did it attract controversy?

The text discusses Anish Kapoor’s Dirty Corner in the Gardens of Versailles, which many read as explicitly sexual. Kapoor acknowledged its “very sexual” character while framing it as an attempt to disrupt ordered space.

How does the document connect Dirty Corner to Marie-Antoinette’s historical imagery?

It links Dirty Corner’s reception to the historical discursive impact of Marie-Antoinette’s vagina in late 18th-century pornographic pamphlets. These pamphlets circulated before and during the French Revolution and shaped what the public considered “public” sexual meaning.

What role did the pamphlets’ illustrations and the pun “res publica” play?

The pamphlets were illustrated with repeated poses and captions that dramatized the Queen’s alleged genital imagery. The term “res publica” (Latin for “republic”) is used as a pun for “public thing” and “public king,” helping transgress boundaries between private and public.

Aug 26, 2026

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