SUBODH GUPTA (B. 1964)

Mesmerized by the sheen of these quotidian vessels in Gupta's painting one cannot help but be reminded of the vanitas commonly executed by Northern European painters in Flanders and the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The utensils were a celebration of the commerce and the prosperity of their time, while also commenting on the transient nature of vanity. Gupta's painting of this utensil store is the contemporary rendition of a similar genre. However, the polemics of the "emptiness" within the riches of vessels in the Northern European paintings is an interesting point of departure for Gupta. The title of the exhibition where this painting was showcased was Jutha , which literally means a liar and also refers to soiled utensils. This play of words is not accidental; his deceptively simple-looking works garbed in the high-gloss sheen of the familiar, homely, stainless steel forms, are a commentary on contemporary India, transitions, and the inherent contradictions of globalization.