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Lot 70

 

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As a painter and sculptor, Subodh Gupta uses the ubiquitous kitchen vessel as “the theme of India’s oscillation between urban and rural norms” (Dan Cameron, “Worldly Possessions”, Subodh Gupta, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, 2008, pg.264). Negotiating the differences between a rapidly globalising India with its social and cultural peculiarities, Gupta’s vessels emerge as reminders of India’s cultural and ritualistic practices.

... As a painter and sculptor, Subodh Gupta uses the ubiquitous kitchen vessel as “the theme of India’s oscillation between urban and rural norms” (Dan Cameron, “Worldly Possessions”, Subodh Gupta, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, 2008, pg.264). Negotiating the differences between a rapidly globalising India with its social and cultural peculiarities, Gupta’s vessels emerge as reminders of India’s cultural and ritualistic practices.

Throughout his artistic career, Gupta’s works have been layered with meaning. Bharti Kher’s observation of a previous body of work rings true for the current lot as well: “If we were to see materials as symbolic in Subodh’s work, carrying with them the power of multiple narratives—his and our own—the transient, lucid, latent experiences manifested into a moment of time; it is by restructuring these materials that he is able to change the course of memory or rearrange existing meaning.” (“When Soak Becomes Spill”, Subodh Gupta, Gallery Chemould Exhibition Catalogue, Mumbai, 1999)

The present lot shows what appear to be copper pots placed one above the other, outside a trader’s store or in a domestic setting. Rendered with photorealistic accuracy, Gupta beautifies and glorifies these simple kitchen vessels. The viewer is forced to question the notion of value and the unique ways in which it is translated from traditional to contemporary contexts. Peter Nagy observes that Subodh’s art “has taken the experience of India away from the dirty, crowded and noisy to the clean, sparse and sedate....While sharp and resolute, his works still feel organic and haphazard; while cold and clinical they still resemble and overbearing crush of humanity....Artifice as the basic tenet of all social interaction and all cultural production seems to be one of Subodh’s primary concerns.” (Peter Nagy, “Subodh Gupta: The Metaphorical Sublime”, Subodh Gupta, Bodhi Art Exhibition Catalogue, 2007, not paginated)

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