Sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor was named as this year's winner of the million-dollar Genesis Prize, awarded for commitment to Israel and Judaism, organisers said. British-Indian Kapoor "is one of the most influential and innovative artists of his generation", they said in a statement. He won the prestigious Turner Prize in 1991 and was knighted in 2013. The award is granted by the Israeli government, the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency and the Genesis Prize Foundation.
Last year's winner was virtuoso Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman. Other past laureates include former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and US actor Michael Douglas. Kapoor, whose huge works of public art are landmarks in cities from London to Chicago, was born in Bombay, now Mumbai, in India in 1954 to a Hindu father and a Jewish mother. "Outsider consciousness resides at the heart of Jewish identity and this is what motivates me, while accepting the honour of the Genesis Prize, to re-gift the proceeds to refugee causes," Kapoor said.
