Some call him the ‘Damien Hirst of Delhi’. Others compare him to Marcel Duchamp for his use of ordinary, manufactured objects in his work. Whatever you think of him, though, the truth is you simply cannot ignore Subodh Gupta. A bona fide polymath, his diverse practice ranges from sculptures to paintings, photography, installations, as well as video and performance works. Today, he is one of India’s most influential and acclaimed contemporary artists, best known for his massive sculptures and installations assembled from everyday household objects like stainless steel tiffin carriers and utensils, brass and other metal objects, and occasionally, facsimiles of consumer electronics, motorbikes, and even automobiles. ‘The Way Home’, a major solo exhibition at the Bihar Museum in Patna, marks the artist’s prodigal return to Bihar — his birthplace.
Curated by Mr. Anjani Kumar Singh, the Director General of the Bihar Museum, the exhibition features twenty major sculptures spanning over twenty years from 2003 to 2024, as well as a small selection of paintings, representing the evolution of Gupta’s artistic practice over the last two decades. It also marks a full-circle moment in the artist’s career as only his second solo exhibition in Bihar since his debut solo ‘Recent Paintings’ at the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya in 1986.
“Home to me is rooted in my upbringing in a small railway town in Bihar, surrounded by family and warmth,” Gupta says. “It’s where my connection to life and art began. ‘The Way Home’ is a return to these roots — bringing my work back to the familiar, humble objects that have always shaped my art. This exhibition in Patna feels like a homecoming, both personally and artistically.”
The humble objects Gupta refers to are everyday objects one might find in virtually all Indian households. The ordinary stainless steel or brass ‘bartan’, or vessel, is one of them. A recurring idiom in Gupta’s practice, he uses the bartan as a building block to create a wide variety of works that range from the minimal to the maximal. Using the familiar forms and shapes of these ubiquitous utensils and readymade objects, Gupta's sculptures encapsulate the multitudes and contradictions of contemporary India through the most basic household accoutrements of Indian life found throughout the country, as well as specific icons that symbolise the rapid socio-political changes that have taken place in India in the past 30 years.
In addition to kitchen utensils and equipment, some of the sculptures and installations featured in the exhibition also use milk pails, airport trolleys, motorcycles, and even an Ambassador car — once a defining symbol of power and social progress in modern India. 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.
Earlier in his career, Gupta used new and unused utensils and household objects in his works, but now he prefers aged and abandoned objects.
“Over time, I’ve become more attuned to the human/documentary of stories behind the objects I use,” Gupta explains. “The shift from new, unused items to aged and abandoned objects is a reflection of this growing awareness to tell a story with the work. I now seek out these objects not just for their form, but for the lives they’ve lived. They carry the same shared experiences and behaviours that have shaped my own journey, making them more meaningful to me and the work. They feed into the philosophies that I'm interested in such as the cosmological nature of living and being here today.”
An astute observer of the world, the implications of using readymade consumer goods and objects as his chosen medium, especially as we live through late-Capitalism, isn’t lost on Gupta.
“I do see the very evident consumerist idea of ownership. It's everywhere and especially on social media. People believe that this is a reflection of their status and identity, but I find more value in the humble, everyday objects that reflect our shared experiences," Gupta says. "Art, music, poetry and cooking are things that connect us, and I prefer that space. Growing up in Bihar, the rapid social and economic changes shaped my work for sure. In Tasveer, for example, using old chappals symbolises the workers' journey from Bihar, highlighting both the demand for labour to fuel this consumerism and the cost of that in human terms. Yet there is simplicity in the worn objects that carry meaning and memory in society".
About the Artist:
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 Nadar Museum, 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 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.
Follow Subodh Gupta here.
'The Way Home', supported by Nature Morte, is on display at the Bihar Museum, Patna, until February 15, 2025. Learn more about the exhibition here.
If you enjoyed reading this, here's more from Homegrown:
Parag Sonarghare's Hyperrealistic Paintings Find Beauty In Human Imperfections
Bharti Pitre's Paper Mache Sculptures Are Animated Depictions Of India's Diversity
What Is Computational Design? How Homegrown Artists Are Embracing The Artform