PATRIOT | NEW DELHI | THURSDAY| 9-15 NOVEMBER |2017 art&culture 13

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Bela’s rendition of the “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci. Gupta’s version surrounds Jesus with sickly looking farmers, sitting at a table full of fast food PHOTOS: BELA GUPTA

Unsettling art for a stark reality

FROM REIMAGINING
DA VINCI’S ICONIC
MURAL PAINTING,
“THE LAST SUPPER”
TO PLACING A
FARMER NEXT TO
RONALD MCDONALD
— ARTIST BELA
GUPTA WANTS
TO HIGHLIGHT
THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN PRIVILEGE
AND DEPRIVATION
Karishma Sehgal
PEPPERED WITH shades of satire
and sarcasm, artist Bela Gupta’s
latest series, Konquest and
Kerfuffle, is not intended to add to
the frills of one’s living space, but
is rather aimed at highlighting the
stark contrast between privilege
and deprivation, centred around
the themes of capitalism, colonial-
ism and consumerism.
An artwork titled McFarm, fea-
tures a bony farmer, holding a can
of Thumbs Up, sitting next to
Ronald McDonald on a bench.
Another one of Gupta’s works from
the series is her rendition of Da
Vinci’s iconic mural painting, “The
Last Supper”.
In her version, Jesus is surround-
ed by sickly looking farmers with
protruding rib cages, sitting at a
table full of food that international
fast food chains, soft drink and
confectionary brands have popu-
larised in our seemingly “boom-
ing” economy.
The aforementioned works, as
the rest of the series, satirically
symbolise the issues that have
resulted out of the “British colonial
conquest, their exploitation of us
as people and the subsequent con-
fusion over the ages, because of
inherent dilemmas that were never
addressed,” explains Gupta.
“These have manifested into our
existing society, which is riddled
with despair, denial and depriva-
tion,” she adds. Her works osten-
sibly doused in colour and pop
imagery, depict the dark realities
that the privileged of the society
FAST AND THE FURIOUS: Bela has explored themes like capitalism, colonialism and consumerism
more often than not, turn their
backs towards.
Gupta, who hails from Agra,
moved to Delhi 30 years ago to pur-
sue education in art. “After a prom-
ising beginning, I had to take a long
sabbatical because of health rea-
sons. All along, I quietly prepared
and studied various subjects of my
interest. This (Konquest and
Kerfuffle) is a culmination of
almost a decade of work,”she
recounts.
Gupta’s penchant for social art is
not a new one.
“I used to earlier make litho-
graphs and etchings on various
social maladies. After more than 10
years, I started to pay attention to
news on farmer suicides, which
ran back to back with news of India
becoming the fastest growing
economy. This polarity gave me
impetus to produce art again
which has a strong message,” she
reveals.
For Gupta, whose work has been
called out for being too serious,
purpose takes precedence over
popularity. “When I started this
series, I did not think of selling. I
was only driven by a purpose,” she
confesses.
After being let down by the
reception that her work received at
commercial galleries for almost six
to seven years, she decided to
exhibit her issue-based artworks
on her own, at as many venues that
she could hire and exhibit.
“The art market in India works on
petty profit mongering. A lot of art-
works are cheap replicas of what is
happening in the West. The few con-
trolling galleries as per their whims
and fancies pick up such art and
engage in selling and reselling. Too
much art is featured under the ban-
ner of abstract or conceptual — that
the art world seems to be drifting
away from the society it exists in, is
self-evident,” she asserts.
“It struck me, time and again,
that if you do not display a certain
obvious subservience and tow the
line of the people who ‘control art’
it is very tough for you to get
noticed and be given your due; no
matter how good your efforts are,
no matter how truthful and studied
your attempts are,” she adds.
Given that numerous contempo-
rary artists have revisited “The Last
Supper” in their own way, Gupta
draws a comparison between hers,
and Zeng Fanzhi’s version of the
artwork. “Zeng used ‘The Last
Supper’ to show the changing face
of society. Similarly, my interpreta-
tion of this work attempts to do the
same and furthermore aims to cap-
ture the whole essence of my
series,” she explains.
The mediums that Gupta pri-
marily works with include oil on
canvas, mixed media, sculptures
and installations. She claims to be
particularly inspired by the works
of Ai WeiWei, Zhang Xiaogang and
Gerhard Richter.  n

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