Subodh Gupta, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland, 2011
Photo: Jussi Koivunen

One thing that the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Kochi-Muzuris Biennale 2012 have in common is the artist Subodh Gupta.

The Bihar born sculptor/painter/installation artist has been at work for twenty years but is currently at the vanguard of modern Indian art. He has taken the ubiquitous metal articles of India and followed the tenets of the 19th century conceptualist artists who elevated the ready-made and everyday into objets d’art. 

As Gupta describes his work

“All these things were part of the way I grew up. They are used in the rituals and ceremonies that were part of my childhood. Indians either remember them from their youth, or they want to remember them…

I am the idol thief. I steal from the drama of Hindu life. And from the kitchen – these pots, they are like stolen gods, smuggled out of the country. Hindu kitchens are as important as prayer rooms.

Subodh Gupta’s work at Aspinwall, a venue of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012