Subodh Gupta: The Way Home

On November 9, the Bihar Museum of Patna will inaugurate a major exhibition of works by the artist Subodh Gupta. Born in 1964 in Khagaul, Bihar, Gupta has been based in New Delhi and the suburb of Gurgaon since 1992. Though he has travelled the world exhibiting his work in prestigious museums and art galleries, he has always retained a close connection with his upbringing in Bihar, inspiring many of the works he has created in the past 30 years.

Curated by the Director General of the museum Mr. Anjani Kumar Singh, the exhibition will feature twenty major sculptures from the years 2003 to 2024, as well as a small group of paintings. Gupta is well-known for starting with the common bartan and using it to create a wide variety of works that go from the minimal to the maximal. He taps into the lives of the common Indian by using the most basic household items found throughout the country, as well as specific icons that symbolize the rapid changes and economic developments that have taken place in India in the past 30 years. In addition to kitchen equipment, some of the sculptures also use motorcycles, milk pails, airport trolleys, thali trays, an Ambassador car, and tiffins. Formally challenging and conceptually complex, Gupta’s works engage with the major schools of modern art developed in the West during the 20th century, while doing so with a vocabulary which is entirely Indian.

Subodh Gupta’s works have been exhibited in monographic exhibitions in prestigious museums including Monnaie de Paris (2018); Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, UK (2017); The Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC (2017); National Gallery of Victoria, Australia (2016); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany (2014); Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (2013); Kiran NadarMuseum, New Delhi (2012); and the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland (2011). Gupta’s mid-career survey, curated by Germano Celant, was held at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi in 2012, where his monumental sculpture “Dada” is permanently installed on the lawns of the museum, facing the India Gate. Gupta is represented by Nature Morte in New Delhi, Galeria Continua in San Gimignano, and Hauser & Wirth in London.

Opened in 2015, The Bihar Museum was built to contain the collections of the former Patna Museum, which dates from the colonial era. The museum displays historical artifacts from the Bihar region starting from the dawn of civilization up to 1764. In addition, traditional, folk and contemporary art forms are also displayed. It is particularly appropriate that Subodh Gupta is now having a major solo exhibition at the museum, as he was commissioned to create a permanent work for the building. His monumental sculpture entitled “Yantra” (from 2017) measures 7 meters in diameter and is a giant mandala constructed from actual appliances (such as refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines) in addition to his signature bartans, in giant sizes.

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