休斯顿美术馆玻璃尔艺术学院及广场雕塑安装项目丨安尼施·卡普尔（Anish Kapoor）

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston gets its own giant bean sculpture by Anish Kapoor

Justine Testado

View of walkable roofline of the MFAH Glassell School of Art; the Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza; Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Column (foreground, right); and Eduardo Chillida’s Song of Strength (rear, left). Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects.

Looks like Houston has a giant, shiny bean-shaped sculpture of its own now. Completing its two-day installation today, “Cloud Column” by Anish Kapoor — the same artist who created Chicago's infamous “Cloud Gate” — is the first of two sculptures on the Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza at the

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

's upcoming Glassell School of Art. The school and plaza, making up phase one of the museum's

expansion

, are scheduled to open May 20.

View south of the Glassell School and Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza. Courtesy Deborah Nevins & Associates / Nevins & Benito Landscape Architecture.

Conceived by Kapoor in the late 1990s and realized in 2006, Cloud Column is made of hand-worked stainless steel. Working for at least five hours early Monday morning, crews used a 650-ton crane to hoist up the 21,000-pound oblong sculpture (attached to a 6,000-pound crate) into its exact positioning on the plaza. After the sculpture was set in place, a member from Kapoor's London installation team buffed its stainless steel surface to its signature sheen.

Installation process of Anish Kapoor, Cloud Column (2006), March 26, 2018. Photo by Will Michels.

Installation process of Anish Kapoor, Cloud Column (2006), March 26, 2018. Photo by Will Michels.

Installation process of Anish Kapoor, Cloud Column (2006), March 26, 2018. Photo by Will Michels.

Some might call the Cloud Column as just another Chicago Bean, but Kapoor claims the two sculptures are different, The Chicago Tribune writes in a

biting article

. According to MFAH Director Gary Tinterow in

Houston Public Media

, Cloud Column remained unfinished and stored in Kapoor's London workspace after the original commission fell through. In the meantime, Kapoor began to work on the Chicago Bean and other projects. MFAH acquired Cloud Column when they learned the sculpture was still available.

“When we had the opportunity several years ago to acquire this precursor to Chicago’s Cloud Gate, I could only imagine that it would be as extraordinary for this city as Anish’s work has been for Chicago,” Tinterow said in a statement.

In mid-April, Eduardo Chillida’s 1966 “Song of Strength” sculpture will be installed opposite of Cloud Column.

Watch the installation of Cloud Column in the video below.

Installation process of Anish Kapoor, Cloud Column (2006), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 26, 2018. Video courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.