Important Notice

India’s ubiquitous stainless steel kitchen utensils have long fascinated Subodh Gupta. Emblematic of the unique path India has taken in its journey towards globalization, and the distinctive place it will always have in the modern world, these bowls and buckets take on several layers of meaning in Gupta’s paintings and installations. Ideal vehicles to voice his concerns about subjective and objective value, these vessels also communicate the... India’s ubiquitous stainless steel kitchen utensils have long fascinated Subodh Gupta. Emblematic of the unique path India has taken in its journey towards globalization, and the distinctive place it will always have in the modern world, these bowls and buckets take on several layers of meaning in Gupta’s paintings and installations. Ideal vehicles to voice his concerns about subjective and objective value, these vessels also communicate the artist’s comments on mass taste and the values of material production and consumption.

“Swinging from significant information to seemingly ordinary motifs, Gupta’s constructions weave highly eccentric imaginings with public myths and rituals. Drawing mainly from everyday objects and scenarios, his aesthetic delineates the complex inter-relations of India’s urban and rural communities. It shows the effects of consumerism and the modernization of traditional Indian society. Taking an ironic swipe at Capitalism’s materialist ethic, Gupta nonetheless portrays the social and economic aspirations of rural and urban Indians with an affectionate compassion” (Paths of Progression, Saffronart and Bodhi Art exhibition catalogue, 2005, not paginated).

In the present lot, Gupta presents the viewer with a string of pans and buckets hanging outside a trader’s store in old Delhi where used vessels and other goods are weighed and bartered for new ones. Through this image, the artist brings into focus the multifaceted nature of the material and, by extension, the multiplicity of experiences in India following the country’s dramatic economic liberalization in the 1990s. Through this striking image, Gupta pushes the viewer to question the notion of value and the unique ways in which it is translated from traditional to contemporary contexts, underscoring the importance of outliers and departures from the flattening norms of globalization.

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