"Cosmic Battle"
Subodh Gupta
NATURE MORTE
287, 288, 100 Feet Rd, Chhatarpur Hills, New Delhi 110074
Tel: +91 11 40687117 e-mail:
25 February > 10 April, 2022
Nature Morte is pleased to announce the exhibition of a major installation by Subodh Gupta.
Created in 2018, “Cosmic Battle” is the premiere showing of a major new work by Subodh Gupta which expands his sculptural language into a total environment. Suspended from the ceiling, just grazing the floor, will be a large semi-sphere which revolves slowly, presenting itself to the viewer in multiple guises. The work interacts with the space around it to be physically commanding, overwhelming in dimensions and materiality, but also ephemeral and elusive due to its reflective surfaces, enveloping darkness, and hypnotic rotation. What the viewer makes of this other-worldly presence will depend on the personal encounter of the work on its infinite cycle of revolutions. How each viewer perceives the object in space, how their eyes adjust to light and opacity inside the work. The presence is both celestial and yet intimately human, timeless and quotidian, excessive and agile.
Alongside the installation, in the gallery’s side room, will be a new work Entitled “Self-Portrait”, 2022. This work is a foil perhaps to the floating apparition in the main gallery. It is as if a number of Gupta sculptures have crash-landed to earth, their parts haphazardly disheveled and battered, their refuse ready to be plundered by scavengers. The pilot of this fated spacecraft lives and many of Gupta’s most signature objects and materials remain as bodies subject to gravity, which we all inevitably succumb to. Yet the work harbors a surprise and signs of life are discernable as it breathes deeply, creaking and moaning over the remains of railway tracks, that connect Gupta back to his memories of growing up in a railway colony. The scene now is a place of prayer, that speaks about community, care and private histories. Ritual, song and mantra passed down from mother to son, father to daughter, the living to the deceased.
A third work, entitled “Torso” and recently created, joins the ensemble. A figure is found to be in a state of decomposition. classical in stature, yet vulnerable to nature that is beginning to colonize its form. The self-cast torso in bronze stands anchored to a plinth made from the same railways tracks from his hometown. Together, this triptych of works reveals Gupta’s interests in the passage of time, the experience of the self in relation to the body and its material language thus continuing the connections between the artists inner life and the works he creates.
Born in Khagaul, Bihar (1964), Subodh Gupta studied at the College of Art, Patna (1983-1988) before moving to New Delhi, where he continues to live and work. Trained as a painter, he went on to experiment with a variety of media, and his mature work can be said to begin with his first installation entitled Twenty-nine Mornings, created during a residency at the Fukuoka Museum of Asian Art in Japan in 1996.
Gupta is known to work with ubiquitous objects such as mass-produced steel utensils, found routinely as part of household kitchens throughout India. The ordinary items are combined and transformed into sculptures that reflect the social and political economies of Gupta’s homeland, while acknowledging multiple references from the history of Modern Art. While stainless steel is his signature medium, he also executes works in bronze, stone, brass, wood, clay and fibreglass. Striking a dialogue between the found and the built, he manipulates the accoutrements of daily life to encapsulate multitudes of definitions and circumstances of contemporary India.
Before art school, Gupta delved into the arena of theatre, experimenting with both acting and set design. For him, performance, and by extension drama, exists as an inherent condition of being. Gupta states, “Performing has become a part of my life. So whenever you see my large works, it is part of my performance on a big stage”. In both his sculptures and paintings, the artist reflects upon the theatre of life, the performers who move through it, the props with which they engage, and the narratives that are implied. In 2010 Gupta designed the sets and costumes for a performance choreographed by Ballet Preljocaj for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
Subodh Gupta’s works have been exhibited in prestigious museums, art fairs and biennales throughout the world. A selection of his solo exhibitions at museums include Adda/Rendez-vous, Monnaie de Paris, Paris, France (2018); From Far Away Uncle Moon Calls, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, UK (2017); Art Unlimited, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2017), The Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC, USA (2017); Anahad/Unstruck, Famous Studio, Mumbai, India presented by Nature Morte (2016); Everyday; Divine, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2016); Everything is Inside, Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany (2014); Spirit Eaters, Kunstmuseum Thun, Thun, Switzerland (2013); Line of Control, Kiran Nadar Museum, New Delhi, India (2012); Subodh Gupta, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland (2011.) His mid-career survey, curated by Germano Celant, was held at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi in 2012.
Gupta has participated in group exhibitions at institutions including the Venice Biennale; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, Venice; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Singapore Biennale; Triennale del Milano; Shanghai Biennale; Kochi/Muziris Biennale; Taiwan Biennale; Gwangju Biennale; Asia Pacific Triennale, Queensland Art Gallery; Moscow Biennale; Garage Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, Marseille; National Museum, New Delhi; Seoul Olympic Art Museum; Arken Museum, Denmark; UCCA, Beijing; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Museo Nactional de Bellas Artes de la Habana; Museo Nazionale delle Arte del XXI Secolo, Rome; the Stedelijk Museum, Ghent; Guggenheim Museum, New York; House of World Culture, Berlin; Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Istanbul Modern; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; PS1 MoMA, New York; the Hayward Gallery, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and others.
Gupta was knighted with the Chevalier dans L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) in 2013 by the Government of France. Other awards he has received include the Emerging Artist Award established by Bose Pacia Modern, New York, USA (1997) and the 1st Prize at the All India Painting Exhibition by M.F. Husain at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India (1996). His works form part of esteemed public and private collections including Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris), Fond Règional d’Art Contemporain Corse (Corsica, France), National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi, India), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Devi Art Foundation (Gurgaon, India), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Fukuoka, Japan), the Eugenio Lopez Jumex Collection (Mexico City), the Charles Saatchi Collection (London), the Francois Pinault Collection (Paris), and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (New Delhi).
Alongside the installation, in the gallery’s side room, will be a new work Entitled “Self-Portrait”, 2022. This work is a foil perhaps to the floating apparition in the main gallery. It is as if a number of Gupta sculptures have crash-landed to earth, their parts haphazardly disheveled and battered, their refuse ready to be plundered by scavengers. The pilot of this fated spacecraft lives and many of Gupta’s most signature objects and materials remain as bodies subject to gravity, which we all inevitably succumb to. Yet the work harbors a surprise and signs of life are discernable as it breathes deeply, creaking and moaning over the remains of railway tracks, that connect Gupta back to his memories of growing up in a railway colony. The scene now is a place of prayer, that speaks about community, care and private histories. Ritual, song and mantra passed down from mother to son, father to daughter, the living to the deceased.
A third work, entitled “Torso” and recently created, joins the ensemble. A figure is found to be in a state of decomposition. classical in stature, yet vulnerable to nature that is beginning to colonize its form. The self-cast torso in bronze stands anchored to a plinth made from the same railways tracks from his hometown. Together, this triptych of works reveals Gupta’s interests in the passage of time, the experience of the self in relation to the body and its material language thus continuing the connections between the artists inner life and the works he creates.
Born in Khagaul, Bihar (1964), Subodh Gupta studied at the College of Art, Patna (1983-1988) before moving to New Delhi, where he continues to live and work. Trained as a painter, he went on to experiment with a variety of media, and his mature work can be said to begin with his first installation entitled Twenty-nine Mornings, created during a residency at the Fukuoka Museum of Asian Art in Japan in 1996.
Gupta is known to work with ubiquitous objects such as mass-produced steel utensils, found routinely as part of household kitchens throughout India. The ordinary items are combined and transformed into sculptures that reflect the social and political economies of Gupta’s homeland, while acknowledging multiple references from the history of Modern Art. While stainless steel is his signature medium, he also executes works in bronze, stone, brass, wood, clay and fibreglass. Striking a dialogue between the found and the built, he manipulates the accoutrements of daily life to encapsulate multitudes of definitions and circumstances of contemporary India.
Before art school, Gupta delved into the arena of theatre, experimenting with both acting and set design. For him, performance, and by extension drama, exists as an inherent condition of being. Gupta states, “Performing has become a part of my life. So whenever you see my large works, it is part of my performance on a big stage”. In both his sculptures and paintings, the artist reflects upon the theatre of life, the performers who move through it, the props with which they engage, and the narratives that are implied. In 2010 Gupta designed the sets and costumes for a performance choreographed by Ballet Preljocaj for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
Subodh Gupta’s works have been exhibited in prestigious museums, art fairs and biennales throughout the world. A selection of his solo exhibitions at museums include Adda/Rendez-vous, Monnaie de Paris, Paris, France (2018); From Far Away Uncle Moon Calls, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, UK (2017); Art Unlimited, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2017), The Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC, USA (2017); Anahad/Unstruck, Famous Studio, Mumbai, India presented by Nature Morte (2016); Everyday; Divine, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2016); Everything is Inside, Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany (2014); Spirit Eaters, Kunstmuseum Thun, Thun, Switzerland (2013); Line of Control, Kiran Nadar Museum, New Delhi, India (2012); Subodh Gupta, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland (2011.) His mid-career survey, curated by Germano Celant, was held at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi in 2012.
Gupta has participated in group exhibitions at institutions including the Venice Biennale; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, Venice; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Singapore Biennale; Triennale del Milano; Shanghai Biennale; Kochi/Muziris Biennale; Taiwan Biennale; Gwangju Biennale; Asia Pacific Triennale, Queensland Art Gallery; Moscow Biennale; Garage Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, Marseille; National Museum, New Delhi; Seoul Olympic Art Museum; Arken Museum, Denmark; UCCA, Beijing; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Museo Nactional de Bellas Artes de la Habana; Museo Nazionale delle Arte del XXI Secolo, Rome; the Stedelijk Museum, Ghent; Guggenheim Museum, New York; House of World Culture, Berlin; Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Istanbul Modern; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; PS1 MoMA, New York; the Hayward Gallery, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and others.
Gupta was knighted with the Chevalier dans L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) in 2013 by the Government of France. Other awards he has received include the Emerging Artist Award established by Bose Pacia Modern, New York, USA (1997) and the 1st Prize at the All India Painting Exhibition by M.F. Husain at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India (1996). His works form part of esteemed public and private collections including Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris), Fond Règional d’Art Contemporain Corse (Corsica, France), National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi, India), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Devi Art Foundation (Gurgaon, India), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Fukuoka, Japan), the Eugenio Lopez Jumex Collection (Mexico City), the Charles Saatchi Collection (London), the Francois Pinault Collection (Paris), and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (New Delhi).
 | Subodh Gupta | |
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