Artist Satish Gupta is all set to showcase his lifetime’s work which will comprise sculpture, paintings and haikus at Visual Art Gallery. He tells Shrabasti Mallik how they capture the subtle nuances of Zen philosophy
One can identify SH Raza’s works by the bindu or dot, MF Husain’s works by horses and Jamini Roy’s by the elongated, doe-shaped eyes. Satish Gupta’s artworks can, however, be identified by the larger than life installations of Buddha, Zen philosophy and characters from epics.
It will be after 25 years that Gupta, a Delhi-based artist, will be exhibiting his lifetime’s works of 10 sculptures, eight paintings and 72 haikus at the Visual Arts Gallery at India Habitat Centre, starting from March 24.
“I am drawn to nature. So my journey began as a painter of landscapes. My paintings encompass portraiture, landscape as well as abstract imagery and reflect my deep engagement with mysticism and the Zen spirit. The colours that I use are minimalistic, delicate and understated like blues, moss green, lilac pink, earthy brown and beige. They make for an ethereal world,” he said. “In my works there is a sense of calm detachment, an assurance that I am both participant and observer in my own life,” he explained. His collection of haikus, presented in his characteristic and visually rich calligraphic style, captures the subtle nuances of Zen philosophy. “These haikus are autobiographical as they trace my journey and act as records of the most transforming moments,” he added.
One has to see Gupta’s life-size installation, a sleeping Buddha’s head reclined at an angle, to understand his work. “The sculpture is both meditative and quietening, because its towering scale has a surprise element. For on the reverse, Buddha’s head is patterned like a cave, its inner walls inscribed with neat rows of Buddhas carved as though by ancient hands on a rock face like edicts from a preceding age. The mesmerising quality of the Buddhas within is hypnotic, yet it is neither old nor rock, but copper, and across the ‘cave’s’ length sprawls the figure of a gilded sleeping Buddha,” he told us.
There will also be on display Surrender, an elegantly aerodynamic Garuda done in copper with patina, stainless steel with gold and mirror finish to understand the sheer magnitude of his perspective. “The Garuda spreads its wings against the sky’s invitation to fly. It certainly is larger than life in its size but is made in a way that it does not overpower. Its legs and hands are bent, perhaps in worship, or submission; each feather in each wing is so finely delineated which in itself is a work of art,” the artist said.
“Then there are the deeply moving sculptures, Shunya and Meditations on a Mandala, each a masterpiece of void and solids, a Buddha cut from a metal sheet and a series of Buddhas suspended from a metallic frame, to merge one moment and emerge as the next, a point of mediation and meditation. They make us rethink of mankind’s constant quest and search, a restlessness that can succumb to suggestions of accord only when it unites with, not against, nature,” said Gupta.
The Sanskriti awardee’s personal collection on display will give the visitors a chance to experience the ethereal quality of his works which are lucid, lyrical and profound.