Works of a 'monumental' nature on view

Chicago based Walsh Gallery hosts a ‘Monumental’ show, involving top contemporary artists, true to its title. Largely a collection of founder Julie Walsh, the showcase falls into three major categories: personal narrative, specific historical events and current events.

There is a wide array of works on view, in terms of scale or context. Subodh Gupta, Jitish Kallat, Atul Dodiya and Ravinder Reddy are among the major names from India. A curatorial essay states: “These artists have pushed the boundaries of scale to create works of a monumental nature. Often embedded in these works are the ideas of historical commentary, whether of a personal narrative or global nature.”

Jitish Kallat's 5 lenticular prints ‘Death of Distance’ juxtapose text from a tele-company advertising mobile coverage across the country, for just a rupee a day, with a story of the suicide of a poor girl who didn't have a rupee to buy food. A 6ft graphite rupee stands adjacent to the work. Subodh Gupta's large-scale oval installation ‘Chimta’ of stainless steel tongs (made in India) exposes some of the clichés as he explores the issue of just how ‘Indian’ contemporary art from the country needs to be.

Referencing Egyptian and African sculpture, Ravinder Reddy's gold leaf covered 6ft fiberglass bust is at once a contemporary deity’s portrait and a tribute to that which over time endures - woman's strength of character. Atul Dodiya's ‘E.T.’ is a shop shutter comprising multiple layers. On the outside of it is a painting of a historical moment when Sundaram Tagore and Einstein met in India. Its outside part represents the great ideals of how his country could be. When it’s lifted, the shutter shows a surreal landscape painting with a skeletal scribe on top of an airplane, dropping either bombs or food packages on a desolate landscape.

At other end of the art spectrum, Aicon Gallery (London) analyzes the emergence of Indian Modern Art. On the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary, the art space hosts Rabindranath Tagore's works. It focuses on paintings by Jamini Roy and also looks back to Kalighat Paintings that had a foundational role in the development of Indian Primitivism and were exhibited as early as 1871 in London. Artists then saw a proto-modernism in its simple, sharp and direct forms. Art scholar Partha Mitter has argued that apart from Tagore, the two artists key to its development were Jamini Roy and Amrita Sher-Gil.