Subodh Gupta

Gupta is best known for incorporating everyday objects that are ubiquitous throughout India, such as the steel tiffin boxes used by millions to carry their lunch, as well as thali plates, bicycles, and milk pails. From such ordinary items, Gupta produces sculptures that reflect on the economic transformation of his homeland. Of his practice, he has said, "All these things were part of the way I grew up. They were used in the rituals and ceremonies that were part of my childhood. Indians either remember them from their youth, or they want to remember them."^[11] On the symbolism of ritual elements of Hindu life in his work, he says "I am the idol thief. I steal from the drama of Hindu life. And from the kitchen - these pots, they are like stolen gods, smuggled out of the country. Hindu kitchens are as important as prayer rooms."^[12]

Several of his works have become significant in their own right.

My Mother and Me (1997): Gupta set himself apart from others of his generation by adopting organic materials intrinsic to Indian culture in his work, most notably cowdung. "My Mother and Me" was a cylindrical structure ten feet high made from cowdung with a layer of ash spread across the floor. Originally constructed during a workshop organised by Khoj Studios in Modinagar near Delhi, the work was exhibited during a career retrospective at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, in 2014.^[13]

Bihari (1999): Gupta addressed his identity and rural roots through a self-portrait enmeshed in cow dung and a single LED-inscribed Devanagiri word, "Bihari," meaning someone from the Indian state of Bihar, a qualifier often used as a slur, owing to the impoverished circumstances of the state, and people from Bihar seeking economic refuge in other parts of India.^[14]

Very Hungry God (2006): Gupta's gigantic sculpture of a skull, made from kitchen vessels, was displayed outside François Pinault's Palazzo Grassi, at the 2007 Venice Biennale. "Subodh managed to take a ubiquitous symbol and make it meaningful anew, an enormously difficult task that could only have been accomplished by a consummate artist," wrote Indian art critic Girish Shahane in January 2007.^[15]

What does the vessel contain, that the river does not (2012): Originally created for the first edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Gupta's 21.35 m (70.0 ft) long, 3.15 m (10.3 ft) wide, 11 m (36 ft) deep boat was stuffed with a collection of found objects: abandoned chairs, beds, fishing nets and window frames among others. Echoing sentiments of migration, displacement, belonging, movement, and stability, the work took its title from a line in "The Sufi Path of Love" by Persian poet Rumi: "What does the vat contain that is not in the river? / What does the room encompass that is not in the city? / This world is the vat, and the heart the running stream, / this world the room, and the heart the city of wonders."^[16]

Gupta's work has been widely exhibited at public museums. One of those works, Line of Control (2008), a mushroom cloud constructed entirely of pots and pans, was shown at the Tate Triennial at Tate Britain in the UK in 2009, and is currently exhibited at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi.^[17] Another work, Banyan Tree (2014), a life-size sculpture made from stainless steel, is permanently displayed at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.^[18] In 2015, Subodh Gupta exhibited his work, ‘When Soak Becomes Spill’, made in India and London, 2015, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 2018, he had his first retrospective exhibition, Adda / Rendez-vous, in France at the Monnaie de Paris.^[19]

Gupta has also created live performance participating in the Performa Biennial in 2013. Celebration, commissioned for the biennial, was a communal Indian feast inside a light filled sculpture. Gupta spent six days preparing for the five course meals that would be served to sixty people.

In 2008, Gupta's oil on canvas work titled Saat Samundar Paar sold for Rs 34 million at a Saffronart auction, the money going to a fund for victims of a catastrophic flood in his home state of Bihar.^[20]

Gupta lives and works in Gurgaon, outside Delhi, with his wife and two children. He is married to Bharti Kher, also a prominent contemporary Indian artist.^[21][22]