A knight’s dream run

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Subodh Gupta is a man of many acquired tastes, and it won’t be an exaggeration if we call him a magician of the art world. Considered one of the best artists in India today, Subodh was recently honoured with Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French government. This honour comes as a recognition of his work, which has been inspired by the daily life of India on the move.

The artist confesses it’s a great feeling. “France has always recognised my work and it’s one of the best feelings to get this award from them,” says Subodh, who is the next Indian after Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Raghu Rai, Ebrahim Alkazi, the late Habib Tanveer and Upamanyu Chatterjee to get this award.
Subodh is also famous for giving an artistic interpretation to all things Indian, particularly the steel utensils commonly used in our kitchens.
“I have been talking about my work (sculptures made of utensils) since the past five years and have nothing more to share on them. What I can say is that being a contemporary Indian artist, I wanted to give an entirely new interpretation to many things. And being an Indian, my attention was always on things indigenous to us. Somewhere, I am proud to take this India to international arena where it is getting the recognition it deserves,” says Subodh.
As a boy who studied and grew up in Patna, Subodh never dreamt of making it this big. “I went to a very regular college and didn’t have very big dreams. But when I realised my potential and aspirations, there was no stopping,” says Subodh, who shifted base to Delhi to give wings to his dreams.
“I understood the fact that for any artist, it is very important to create a new language. For me, this language means individuality, emoting one’s feelings and expressions. With my work, I have created a new language. I have started a stream of visual language where the medium can be different, but the expression is the same,” says Subodh while talking about the different mediums — sculptures, installations, paintings, photography, performance and video — with which he works.
“All my subjects are more or less the same, and a common language binds them. I depict our day to day life and our childhood stories through my work,” he adds.
If you ask him if he ever had an inspiration, the answer is a quick and immediate “No”.
“I would be honest to say that I was never inspired by any artist. When I was studying, I did not have access to many things. I hardly knew what all was going around the world, leave aside knowing many artists. But what inspired me was the work of my contemporaries over the years and they belong to all age groups,” says Subodh.