Indian artist headed for prestigious Basel fair
Installation and pop artist Subodh Gupta is excited about his participation at the upcoming Basel Art Fair in Switzerland, the world’s premier modern and contemporary art fair.‘My installation is part of my ‘Airport’ series. I have created a conveyor belt with 130 pieces of luggage that have been typically cast as real works to give an idea of the oversized, limitless packages that arrive on the conveyor belt at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi) when Indians come back after having worked in Dubai or Abu Dhabi or Kuwait,’ says Gupta.
The Delhi-based artist is excited as well as anxious about his works that have been sent to the modern art Mecca at Basel.
Gupta, who has redefined installation art practice with the Indianesque idiom and is virtually India’s finest ambassador of installation and pop art, has been given international recognition by world famous curators like Rosa Martin of the Venice Biennale.
‘At Basel there will be paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs and editions as well as video and digital art by over 2,000 artists. The full spectrum of modern and contemporary art will be represented: from the great masters of modern art to the latest generation of artists. I am part of ‘Art Unlimited’ which looks at monumental installations,’ Gupta told IANS.
The Basel Art Fair opens June 14 at Messeplatz and will feature about 300 leading art galleries from 30 countries on all continents.
The international art show will showcase 20th and 21st century art works by over 2,000 artists. Over 50,000 art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and art lovers attend the annual gathering of the art community.
Gupta is known for exploding traditional art practices, overcomes restrictions that frequently constrain art and creates works that go beyond impositions of weight, form space and lighting.
In his sculptures and installations, he traverses the distance from his rural origins in Bihar to the world beyond by using forms and products of everyday India out of their rural utilitarian context.
Working with simple symbols of village life like utensils, milk buckets and dried cow-dung cakes, crude guns of the rustic mafia or kitschy icons of the migrant and upwardly mobile classes, his work centres on references to the traditional and contemporary iconography in collision with the fast and sometimes cruel process of modernisation in India.
In this case, it is the migrant labourers’ pieces of luggage and the Indian trolley at the Indira Gandhi airport that will be Gupta’s artistic take on modern day rhetoric.
Asked if international art fairs helped an artist’s professional growth, he said: ‘International fairs like Basel, the Venice Biennale and the Moscow Biennale offers privileged access to first-hand information on aspects of art collecting by facilitating direct encounters with leading personalities of the international art world.’
Gupta, who travels virtually every month to fairs and biennale’s all over the world with his artistic take on the rural idioms, added: ‘It is a forum which encourages the exchange of ideas through platform discussions and personal contact with the speakers. The themes of all these events focus on the collection and exhibition of art.
‘Distinguished art collectors, museum directors, biennale curators, gallery owners, publishers, sponsors, prominent artist and architects take part. They present their… projects, report on their experiences and comment on the challenges they face, … opening up an opportunity for inspiring dialogue. I am fortunate that my works are appreciated and respected and I am called by curators the world over.’
Installation and pop artist Subodh Gupta is excited about his participation at the upcoming Basel Art Fair in Switzerland, the world’s premier modern and contemporary art fair.‘My installation is part of my ‘Airport’ series. I have created a conveyor belt with 130 pieces of luggage that have been typically cast as real works to give an idea of the oversized, limitless packages that arrive on the conveyor belt at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi) when Indians come back after having worked in Dubai or Abu Dhabi or Kuwait,’ says Gupta.
The Delhi-based artist is excited as well as anxious about his works that have been sent to the modern art Mecca at Basel.
Gupta, who has redefined installation art practice with the Indianesque idiom and is virtually India’s finest ambassador of installation and pop art, has been given international recognition by world famous curators like Rosa Martin of the Venice Biennale.
‘At Basel there will be paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs and editions as well as video and digital art by over 2,000 artists. The full spectrum of modern and contemporary art will be represented: from the great masters of modern art to the latest generation of artists. I am part of ‘Art Unlimited’ which looks at monumental installations,’ Gupta told IANS.
The Basel Art Fair opens June 14 at Messeplatz and will feature about 300 leading art galleries from 30 countries on all continents.
The international art show will showcase 20th and 21st century art works by over 2,000 artists. Over 50,000 art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and art lovers attend the annual gathering of the art community.
Gupta is known for exploding traditional art practices, overcomes restrictions that frequently constrain art and creates works that go beyond impositions of weight, form space and lighting.
In his sculptures and installations, he traverses the distance from his rural origins in Bihar to the world beyond by using forms and products of everyday India out of their rural utilitarian context.
Working with simple symbols of village life like utensils, milk buckets and dried cow-dung cakes, crude guns of the rustic mafia or kitschy icons of the migrant and upwardly mobile classes, his work centres on references to the traditional and contemporary iconography in collision with the fast and sometimes cruel process of modernisation in India.
In this case, it is the migrant labourers’ pieces of luggage and the Indian trolley at the Indira Gandhi airport that will be Gupta’s artistic take on modern day rhetoric.
Asked if international art fairs helped an artist’s professional growth, he said: ‘International fairs like Basel, the Venice Biennale and the Moscow Biennale offers privileged access to first-hand information on aspects of art collecting by facilitating direct encounters with leading personalities of the international art world.’
Gupta, who travels virtually every month to fairs and biennale’s all over the world with his artistic take on the rural idioms, added: ‘It is a forum which encourages the exchange of ideas through platform discussions and personal contact with the speakers. The themes of all these events focus on the collection and exhibition of art.
‘Distinguished art collectors, museum directors, biennale curators, gallery owners, publishers, sponsors, prominent artist and architects take part. They present their… projects, report on their experiences and comment on the challenges they face, … opening up an opportunity for inspiring dialogue. I am fortunate that my works are appreciated and respected and I am called by curators the world over.’