Subodh Gupta

Subodh Gupta is perhaps the most vibrant of all success stories that the expanding Indian art market wants to showcase. Born in one of the most underdeveloped rural areas in India, Gupta acquired an art degree from a small art college in Patna and then shifted to New Delhi, where he grouped himself with other artists from his region to exhibit art works in the form of installations and paintings.

From the very beginning, Subodh Gupta had tried to capture the environment in which he had grown up. He painted rural people of India, their attitudes and the sufferings they undergo when they come to urban areas. In many of his paintings Gupta even portrayed himself as a rural bumpkin trying to find a place in the multi-cultural cosmopolitan of India.

In course of time Gupta developed a new series of paintings where he painted only steel utensils which was supposed to be used by the middle-class which constitutes the majority of Indian mass. These paintings became popular in the West and soon Gupta made installations with real steel utensils.

Subodh Gupta is the one of the few major artists in India today who runs factory style workshops where mechanics and engineers are employed to give shape to Gupta’s designs.

He is the most expensive artist in India today fetching the highest ever price fetched by any living artist in India. Gupta lives in Mumbai but travels to Europe regularly.