Subodh Gupta show in London

Subodh Gupta’s works are on view simultaneously at Old Bond Street galleries and London based Hauser & Wirth throughout this month. Among the creations he has made especially for his first major solo show in the UK is an intriguing three-dimensional reworking of Duchamp’s mustachioed Mona Lisa, L.H.O.O.Q, (1919).

Hauser & Wirth, a leading contemporary art gallery, represents many emerging and established artists. The gallery was founded by Ursula Hauser, Iwan Wirth and Manuela Wirth in 1992. It has been located since 1996 in the former Löwenbräu brewery building. In its endeavor to turn the spotlight on Indian contemporary art, the gallery has chosen to showcase Subodh Gupta.

A recent piece on him in the UK Financial Times by Gareth Harris on the eve of the show mentions: “A series of mangoes, the solid bronze pieces, are a sculptural Dutch 17th-century still life, their ‘skins’ dappled with subtly delineated blemishes. The mangoes go on show by the Indian artist, alongside a few other impressive sculptural creations. This nod to a fellow art market darling is another canny move on the part of artist Subodh Gupta acknowledged as India’s first contemporary art superstar.”

An accompanying note to the solo show elaborates: “In his new works, the artist deftly moves towards objects possessing an auratic quality, away from composite sculptures. Readymade commodities tend to experience transformations in material and scale, transmogrifying into extraordinary artifacts from being mere factory-produced items. He presents subject matters employing culturally loaded mediums like bronze, marble and steel.

“Their symbolism varies from the universal to the enigmatic. And their emotional impact can range from menace to nostalgia. Appropriated icons from the canon of Western art accompany replicas of perishable, interchangeable goods typically associated with India, and items whose import is specific to him.” To sum up, Subodh Gupta’s work embodies the clash between individual and impersonal experience in contemporary society.