Subodh Gupta to help his home state 'develop'

The state government of Bihar, according to a recent news report in The Times of India has decided to involve India’s top contemporary artist, Subodh Gupta, on active basis in a number of development projects. These include the proposed international museum and the centenary celebrations of the state.

A report by Pranava Kumar Chaudhary mentions: “Subodh Gupta, who was recently in town on an invite from the state government, also met Anjani K Singh, HRD principal secretary, also the nodal officer of these state projects. The two discussed the key details of the above projects.

Trained as a painter, Subodh Gupta has experimented with a variety of new and traditional media. His works encompass painting, photography, sculpture, installation, performance and video. Best known for his ability to incorporate ordinary objects of day-to-day usage in his art like steel lunch boxes, pans and milk pails, he has attained international fame. At a broader level, Subodh Gupta’s paintings and sculpture installations map the shifts occurring in the national cultures in the context of the modern world’s life.

An accompanying note to his twin solos simultaneously on view at Old Bond Street galleries and London based Hauser & Wirth in 2009 elaborated: “In his 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.