1996 - 1999 | Early Career & Breakthrough in Contemporary Indian Art
1996
First Solo Exhibition | Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata.
- PERMANENT COLLECTION, BIRLA ACADEMY OF ART & CULTURE. Selected personally by Mr B. K. Birla and Mrs Sarala Birla.
"Manav Gupta uses different surfaces for his expressions too. Among them are cartridge, handmade paper, canvas and even newspaper. One such painting The Shadow is wonderfully executed on a newspaper. It is depiction of a person in constant search for his real self."
1996 | The Telegraph | Gargee Bhattacharjee | Different Strokes – Why Manav Gupta is an artist with a difference.
Manav Gupta is an artist with a difference. He pens down his thoughts first and then uses them as captions for his paintings. He has surprisingly has never received any formal training in art, and is a self-taught artist. His extensive involvement in music and dramatics is what helps him attain the difference in his art Music helps him set a mood for his exhibitions and dramatics perhaps, inspires in him a feeling of involvement with real life, which is extensively reflected in his works. Hence his first solo exhibition of water colours at the Birla Academy Of arts and Culture in Calcutta was a little different. It was held in plush green lawns of the academy with light positioned to provide the best effect and soothing background music.
“Music is very close to my heart. I find it very refreshing and inspiring,” says the 29 year old artist. Music finds a substantial expression in his paintings too. For instance, in one of his paintings The Dreamers – he has painted a group of Singers longing for, and looking forward to a better deal from life, despite the hardships and drudgery of everyday living.
He has chosen women to depict his philosophy of “Hope”. “Women are a very powerful medium. They have become a medium of expression because of the many dimensions and manifestations of feelings they can unfold and generate,” he feels. The painting titles Unaware Shows a woman still untouched by the world outside, completely unaware of what lies in store for her.
In the work titled Nostalgia, the medium is again a woman whose expressive eyes seem to recollect and treasure her long lost memories. The desert which forms the background here signifies her lackluster and barren life. The use of frames to focus on the subject concerned have been handled deftly.
Manav Gupta was inspired to take up the paint brush by eminent landscape painter Vasant Pandit, to whom the artist says, he is indebted. “ He gave me the first colour crayon so he is really my guru,” he say. Renowned artist Paritosh Sen. observing the talent of this youngster o had noted an ‘‘amazing improvement in his work as a watercolour painter.
Manav Gupta uses different surfaces for his expressions too. Among them are cartridge, handmade paper, canvas and even newspaper. One such painting The Shadow is wonderfully executed on a newspaper. It is depiction of a person in constant search for his real self.
His paintings are often visually striking. For example his work titled Ganesh is done in semi abstract style Another one Eruption depicts the gradual dancing of hope and power symbolized by the Shivalingams.
Among the visitors who graced his exhibition were Mr. B K Birla, Mrs. Sarala Birla, Deepak Rudra, Tapin Bhuin, well known water color painter Shyamal Dutta Ray and several other renowned artists and dignitaries.
So how does the artist feel after such a wonderful response? “Their presence has boosted my morale. I will try to organize another solo exhibition within six months,” he promised.
1996 | The Statesman | Young Artist's First Solo at the Birla Academy of Art And Culture.
Manav Gupta. one of the promising young light; of the art world held his first solo exhibition of water colors at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture recently. Fascinated by the different forms of women, his paintings are mainly concentrated on the fairer sex.
His canvasses glow with colour and the figures they represent seem to be dimlit persona from another world. This talented young artist ‘had been winning numerous awards from an early age. The exhibition held recently marked his coming of age in the art world. As his mentor. Paritosh Sen. commented, it shows a great improvement on his earlier style.
At the age of 28 he has surmounted numerous personal tragedies to come so far. One hopes that he will continue to do.
1996. Exhibition Catalogue. He evokes a rare sensitivity.
He explored ‘face at the window sill’ with the “allegory of pensive deep in thoughts and still”. Over the years, he made further iterations of the same concept. Addressing the theme in different ways. As an early exploration in his first solo, this work marked the transparency of the glass with lucid watercolor strokes against the dark autobiographical imagery of the man peeping through the darkness inside. It bore a certain solitude lamenting a certain inner pain. But it also looked at light and hope in the world outside, in which the protagonist was about to step in. When one juxtoposes ‘face at the window sill’ with ‘unaware’ at the same exhibition, it’s almost like presenting two sides of the same coin. Rural and urban. Tribal and contemporary. The artist almost re-iterates: the gender does not matter— whether it is a male or a female. It is the personification of the juncture/ juxtaposition of life at which the protagonist is standing. A moment of metamorphosis. Catharsis. In ‘unaware’ there is innocence and a sublime curiosity of the unknown. A welcoming of what is to come. In this work, it is almost a liberation of the soul. As with an awareness that life is about to change… through art. An interesting pointer is that the artist does not use the ruler or any measurement matrix to create structures of windows. The emphasis is on light from darkness; on hope, through the colors. As if it is a certain celebration of the very moment itself.
In many ways, the first two exhibitions underlined a vision that came from deep within– that of ‘taking art beyond art’ to expand art’s reach itself from the periphery of societal existence to a centrifugal force that offers multifaceted opportunities of learning, innovation, rejuvinating the soul, and opening up human consciousness to a wider and higher realm of the universe.
1997 | "freedom to be different"
1997. Exhibition Catalogue. Freedom to be Different. Freedom to think Different. Freedom to Express Freedom. Alone on his Eyot. Manav Delineates his images with form and colour. With his Earth Series. He evokes a rare sensitivity.
The Earth Series exhibition by Manav proved to be a game changer in many ways. Hosted by Taj Bengal in 1997, it took forward the artists passion for taking art to unconventional spaces, within new audiences that could explore and perhaps be nourished by natures rejuvenating energy. He established nature as a museum laboratory of art, first as underlining light and colour amidst the rainforests in his paintings, and taking it further into rescuing decimated discarded roots and tree trunks that would otherwise have been burnt as firewood; into functional sculptures. He introduced the concept of contemporary miniatures with a fresh exploration of watercolours in postcard sized paintings, redefining the rich Indian context of traditional miniatures. On the occasion of India’s Independence Day, it was his second solo, but a full blown expression of freedom, in it’s raw nascent energy.
In many ways, the first two exhibitions underlined a vision that came from deep within– that of ‘taking art beyond art’ to expand art’s reach itself from the periphery of societal existence to a centrifugal force that offers multifaceted opportunities of learning, innovation, rejuvinating the soul, and opening up human consciousness to a wider and higher realm of the universe.
1997
"seeing the
unseen"
Single-edition sculptures and installations: out of discarded roots and tree trunks creating functional sculptures alongside contemporary miniatures: "earth series"
The Taj Bengal, Kolkata
"Nature has a million answers. Even as I observe tree trunks, roots, branches, idling in some corner, to be burnt down as wood, it affords an excellent laboratory to the mind. It is exciting, sensuous and intoxicating. If one submits oneself to the form and the raw energy of the tree even when it can no longer bear fruit and leaves, one can see great poetry and lyricism in its intertwining branches and roots. The functional sculptures and paintings are a result of this experiment. The process takes over thereafter, but it is just an ode to nature's beauty."
Manav Gupta
April 15, 1997 | Femina | Touch Wood || Dec 15, 1997 | Femina | Emerging Forms Flowing Colours.
December 15, 1997 | Femina | Emerging Forms, Flowing Colours
COLOURS flow, merge and forms emerge at Manav Gupta’ s exhibition of watercolors and creative furniture, held recently at the Taj Bengal, Calcutta.
What is interesting is the use of paper to give the effect of water sprays, shafts or just space, so essential in creating a composition. The show consisted of watercolors, oils and furniture made of roots, burnt wood, wood pulp and bamboo. Watercolors, though, were the artist’s forte. On wet, handmade paper, he handles the paint such that forms are allowed to emerge, grow and develop simultaneously. Though they- are not autobiographical they serve as a diary’ of emotions and events.
The awareness of the collective unconscious makes Gupta’s Images universal. His sequence of brush marks which creates the image always seems to ha\’e an easy flow. There is an essence of relaxation permeating his landscapes. The labyrinths of the blues, umbers and greens with shafts of orange and red entice the viewer. Gupta always keeps a substantial degree of contrast between the color on the picture surface (the field color) and that of the shapes that he establishes on the surface. His forms can be read as phrases and statements, and he uses them again and again, always in different ways. His formats are arenas on which color forms meet or pass by, come into conflict or stand together convivially.
In the creative furniture section, Gupta has used treated tree roots as the main support for tables which have been shaped into antelopes and playful dogs.
The murals and small wall decorative pieces have been constructed as to give an effect of totems, jungle gods and drums, conveying a catchy aura of primitivism. A limited, though personal contribution to the art of living.
1997 | Inside Outside | Manav Gupta and his expressions of freedom | Kiran Grover
Manav Gupta a promising young artist held his second solo exhibition ‘Scapes And Isms’ recently at the Taj Bengal, Calcutta. The Earth series depicted here made quite a statement and drew attention to the beauty of nature but it also drew attention to Manav’s art form as a culmination point of his love and feel for music and poetry from which arises his need to paint his feelings in colour. Manav pens his thoughts first and then goes on to paint his “expression of freedom” with a rare sensitivity to his subject.
Manav’s deep rooted love for nature goes back to his childhood where he came in close contact with bountiful earth and its treasures. The very essence that seeped in is now poured out in his work.
Watercolours are Manav’s forte but he is equally adept at oil and uses a variety of papers to paint on. Never tiring of experimenting, he has used varied mediums like wood and roots in their natural shapes, wood pulp, wood dust, wood and glass, bamboo…But it is his watercolors that really express Manav best- at times soft and gentle almost ethereal and whispery like his favourite ones drawn in blues and greens, while others suddenly burst into vibrant and passionate oranges and, reds and indigos and yet again move onto somber and rich browns, greys and ochres of the earth tones.
1997 | Impressions | MUSE, FLIGHT, SOAR | A poet and a painter, Manav Gupta’s exhibition of water colours and sculptures at the Taj Bengal.
Manav Gupta has kept his promise. On coming of age with first solo exhibition at the Birla Academy in April 96, we had his word on another successful series ”soon”, Today the youthful certitude of the 29 years old has paid off. And here we are , presented with yet another interesting series of water colours= lined up at an exhibition held last week at the Taj Bengal.
But paintings weren’t all that figured at Scapes and lsms-(as the show was called) Manav is creative in more ways than one. He is at home with different mediums- from water colour to oil, from roots of trees to wood pulp. The lat three Manav uses to make murals and sculptures, which are also a passion with him. Some of the sculptures have been turned into designer furniture. All the extra bit added more colour to the exhibition and naturally drew in people.
But first the paintings. They are called the Earth series, and Manav depicts his passion for nature. The paintings devoid of lines whatsoever are glimpses of nature’s different moods. And there is yet another tool of expression. Manav is a poet. Each of his work ( be it painting or sculpture) is accompanied by a poem.
Manav the poet and Manav the artist marry easily to create forms and shades. But it is difficult to tell which is conceived first- the poetry or the painting. Manav himself is not sure” sometimes I pen my thoughts first and then go on to depict them in a painting. Sometimes I paint and caption it with poetry”
The style for poetry is Haiku= the single word Japanese genre. The poetry for Cave Indigo= goes this
Resplendent
Expanse
Looming
Wreathe
The Cave
Unending
Cryptic
The painting is an execution of light and shade that captures a nascent rock almost waking up to the break of dawn and being caressed by the sea. The unfolding of the cave behind the sea water is so intense and real that one can almost touch it.
The poems only underline the aura of mysticism around the paintings. The shades are mingled deftly to evoke a sense of curiosity. The colours- in keeping with the show tag- are essentially earthy at times loud and bright at times soft and serene.
In Aflame there is a sudden burst of energy and passion which emerges from a bright orange and intense yellow ochre. Moonlight Sonata is quieter, in its portrayal of a mystical moon bathing a huge rock. The interplay of white and blue is on a much more subdued note. But all the paintings have one thing in common: they all glow with the artist’s fever and energy.
Echoing Green treats a bright band of sunshine making its way in chequred columns I through soft and green fields.
Ethereal Hope is an abstract that details the filtering of light through columns and shafts. The poetry on it helps a better viewing::
Shafts
Support
Beams
Light
Hope
Caressing
Floor
Thoughts
It’s the last line of this poem that makes Manav flirt .His sensitive exploration of the earth’s different hues springs out of his Thoughts and memories of the woods he has been travelling through time and again. “For me water colour as a medium is intense passion. Nature has had a great influence on me since childhood. As I humbly submit myself to its immense glory and mystical beauty, I try to capture whatever I can of its limitless hues”
In fact it is nature that has kept Manav preoccupied. He keeps turning to it while trying his hand on murals and sculptures made out of roots of trees. They evolve out of their original forms to shape into something Manav remembers from his tours around the Tribal North East.
Tribal are close to nature, and hence Manav is drawn to them. Almost all his sculptures tell their stories. If one is about a legend on tribal worship, the other is on a totem
The catalogue of sculpture includes some striking works like Sylvam Dew Drops. This is a complete piece of intricately patterned roots entwined in lyrical embrace. The sculpture is topped with a lotus leaf glass to make it look like a table. The focal point is the glass on glass that denotes dew spilled on a broad leaf. ‘Play’ a dining table is about two dogs playing in a garden. Here again the natural form= tree trunks = are used to express Manav’s imagination.
Working with roots of trees has been a “most exhilarating experience” for the young artist. “I have tried to retain the sheer poetry of the forms, the lyricism in the contours of its wild forms”
Manav has never been formally trained. His self-teaching has only helped improv his painting, giving him his own style. Perhaps mentor Paritosh Sen puts it best “There are many people in this world who take up jobs in different fields as a means of their livelihood, but otherwise feel a deep need for some kind of creative passion. Manav Gupta a is one of them.”
Professionally too it has been a rewarding experience. One solo exhibition and a few group shows at the Academy Of Fine Arts and the Birla Academy later, Manav has quite a few feathers in his cap(in the form of awards). And there is something else Manav is proud of :his paintings happen to be among the permanent collection at the Birla Academy of Arts and Culture
Music inspires Manav. He loves classical music, but it can be anything soothing”. His total involvement with music makes him all the more sensitive to the melody of nature. Manav’s earlier solo exhibition had a painting called Thee Dreamer , where he had painted a group of singers longing for and looking forward to a better deal from life, despite the daily grind.
But the harping on poetry is something Manav can’t help. Even his most designer style work has a set of rhymes to go with. Reflections a mirror with a lamp in its poetic form is
Allure
Fascination
Ego
Alter Ego
Muse
Flight
Soar
Bird
Armed with a spirit like this Manav is sure to soar.
“In 1997, at his second solo, 15th to 17th August, Gupta’s works caught the attention of one of the most discerning art critics of the Economic Times, who chose only the best of exhibitions, amidst the plethora of shows that happened in Kolkata during those times. While writing about Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Ganesh Haloi and other masters, she chose this young artist’s works to be featured in her column.”
1997 | Art Critic, Economic Times | Exuberant and Reflective. "The artist has a fine sense of colour"
Excerpt: “It is within an established tradition that the romanticism of Manav Gupta is expressed. For the delicate watercolours he exhibited at the Taj Bengal, belong to a genre of nature scapes that exploit the lambent fluidity of the medium for a language that’s poetic.
Exuberant or reflective. The artist has a fine sense of color. Allowing the wet paint to spread in thin stains so that the colours run over and into one another, he creates a symphony of subtle tones that seem to in a state of continual and accidental flux.
In some of the works the artist restricts himself to the gradations of a dominating shade or to a set of rhyming colours. Elsewhere, the contrast of cloudy blurs and dripping capillaries of paint insinuate dramatic happenings in nature. Gupta also displayed furniture made form tree-trunks and driftwood”
■ Rita Datta
1999
“india awaiting – timeless metaphors of dreams”
The Taj Palace, New Delhi
May 1999 | India Today | Recommendations | Works by Manav Gupta
May 31, 1999 | Outlook | He Is Different
June 12, 1999 | The Telegraph Weekend Magazine | Rajlaxmi Bhattacharya | Mixed Media
June 09, 1999 | Asian Age |Nandini Dasgupta |A Poet And A Painter
June1999 | Times of India | Poetry On Canvas ….Having made waves in Calcutta, Manav shifted base to Delhi
July 1999| First City| Preview Art |Timeless Metaphors And Dreams. Gallery Freedom Till July 7th
June 04, 1999 | The Statesman | Soumik Mukhopadhyaya | Progressing On Promise. Abstraction or realism, earth tones dominate the works of Manav Gupta
3rd June 1999 | Delhi Diary | Art Scene : Manav Gupta’s India Awaiting
JUNE 1999 | MUST SEE MUST DO | Delhi Times | His exuberant and reflective paintings depict his acute sense of colouration
June 1999| Indian Express| Review, Art Critic Nirupama Dutt | Words date the visuals
June 1999 | Hindustan Times HT Sunday Magazine | Poonam Goel | Painting It His Way
May 21st, 1999 | The Statesman | Versatility his forte "Gupta is gifted with a knack for seeing the unseen"
By Soumik Mukhopadhyaya
Manav Gupta is gifted with an unusual knack for seeing the unseen. His compositions have a stunning presence. A preview of what’s on the anvil from his side
MANAV GUPTA, a self-taught artist is poised to hold his first solo ow in the Capital. An artist in Calcutta, Manav spent his childhood in the lap of nature which has always had a great influence on him.
Manav; is many men in one in. He is a watercolourist, an expert in oil colour, a sculptor and a poet. Paritosh Sen, an eminent artist from Bengal, while commenting on Manav once wrote; “There are many people in this world who take jobs in different fields as -means of their livelihood, but otherwise feel a deep need for sone kind of a creative expression-
Manav Gupta is one of them. He has chosen painting and drawing as it best suits his talent-
Nature in all its mysteries and manifestation seems to have gripped his mind as reflected in most of his watercolours.
His recent works reveal a cult out of whom art is born. The titles of his works too are the form of a poem written
In Haiku style (this is a Japanese style of writing poetry in which few words are used to suit the mood of the artist). His paintings not only explain his penned down thoughts but interestingly they are titled after the poems.
For instance, “Awaiting, expectant, aqua’s dreams”, or “AT home, fluorescent lights/Bathes, walls and us, after supper/Each to his own thoughts/Together family ties”.
Manav is also gifted with an unusual knack for seeing the unseen. He creates compositions that have a stunning presence. His sculptures, in particular, are single edition items that are well-nigh impossible to duplicate or reproduce
They add a distinct aura to any setting or location by the sheer lyricism of their concept. The exhibition, organized by Scapes and Isms, a private firm, will be held from 27 to 30 May at Taj Palace hotel in Dhaula Kuan.
It would be an exhibition of paintings, poems, images and
functional sculptures , punctuating walls and spaces. The connoisseurs of art and the discerning lovers of literature have a feast for themselves on the anvil. It promises to espouse finer moments statements of life in a rendezvous that makes its mark amongst the class of people who matter.
May 30, 1999 | The Asian Age | A Mystical World Of Shades And Emotions
By Sujata Dutta Sachdeva
He is work is a punctuation of life, like dew drops that appear in the mind’s inner space. His paintings make a statement of their own. for he gives words to his work of art through poetry).
His latest series India Awaiting Timeless : Metaphors of Dreams — is an exhibition of [timings by Manav Gupta, from May 27. Manav’s works are a reflection of various images and impressions of his life.
A 29year-old artist from Calcutta. Manav cremes a colourful world of impressions and images of life, nude-up of throbbing lines and changing colours. “I have captured fleeting moments life from my childhood and added colour to them.” he says. His paintings have a very strong Indian ethos and each of them have an underlying message of hope.
The concept of timeless metaphor is happening at a juncture when the millennium is changing;. He has tried to capture this change brilliantly and with great sensitivity in one if his paintings. He has conceived a book of this series, and the walls arc the canvas of the pages of the book. Though independent. The story binds them.
The book starts with a prologue, it then evolves into a journey of his life from childhood to school days, where he paints temples of learning to his youth, The series also has paintings of people and Music, which has a strong impression on his mind is reflected in his paintings on musicians and musical instruments Interestingly. Manav also dabs in poetry, such that each artifact bears a poetic form. This .self-taught artist was initiated into painting by Vasant Pandit when he was only a year old. “Vasant Pandit gave me a box of crayons for my first birthday, so in a way he is my guru” says Manav. His other great influence was artist Paritosh Sen.
Water-colours have been this young artist’s forte. Manav has experimented with watercolour in all kinds of medium that include newsprint and canvas. Besides painting, he also dabbles into other mediums of art like sculpture and designing furniture. He gives beautiful form to drift wood, recycled wood and waste material. “I was always fond of barks of trees and saw poetry in them. They are like frozen poetry’ to me. The intertwined roots are like a lot of sculptures which cannot be replicated,” he says. He makes sleek and functional furniture out of recycled wood, which have a lot of corporate and private takers.
His much-acclaimed sculpture scries called the ’Totem Terrain” is a tribal ensemble. Manav was inspired to do this series after a chanced visit to the tribal areas of Bastar that left a strong impression on his mind. His sculpture collection includes such images like the antelope, mother and child, swan, besides others.
Nature has been one of the biggest inspiration for this young artist and Manav has done a complete .series based on nature called the “Earth series.” “Nature has inspired me right from my childhood and I have translated it into paintings. They are like transcripts of my mind.” he says.
Manav has held solo shows at the Birla Academy of Art & Culture in Calcutta, and at the Calcutta Taj Bengal. Both the exhibitions were highly acclaimed.
His works have been exhibited in private and public collections which include the permanent gallery at Birla Academy. Calcutta, and corporate houses and hotels.
{The exhibition ends on May 30)
June 12, 1999 | The Telegraph | Weekend Magazine | Mixed Media
By Rajlakshmi Bhattacharyya
Manav Gupta doesn’t rely on paint alone to make his point.
There is a certain haunting quality to Manav Gupta’s paintings. It was the same quality that characterized ‘Timeless Metaphors of Dreams’, a collection of his works, which was recently exhibited at the Taj Palace hotel in Delhi.
But to judge Gupta’s works from his canvases would be doing injustice to the versatility of the man.He writes poetry and gives it a visual interpretation through faces he sketches from the bring out the artist’s sensitivity to the bountiful treasures of the earth. The images in his canvas are far from abstract. They are vivid and are to Gupta like truths “having come to me all the way to take shape…”.
•1 A look at ‘The Call’ which I shows women wanting toil whisper is evocative while ‘Elusive Pursuits’ depicting somber women is pensive. Both ‘Shadows’ and ‘River’ rely on the use of Indigo though their meanings are vastly different. In the former he goes “seeking shadows in blinding light” whereas in the latter he asserts, “I am alive”. A keen observer, Gupta’s Aquous Dreams of the Future’ features two limpid eyes. Recollections from his childhood are portrayed in canvases showing folk singers, the guru shishya pramparaa and palm leaf manuscripts. ‘”These ideas evolved from mythical stories I heard on my mother’s lap,” clarifies the artist.
Gupta was so inspired by the freedom struggle, he painted the national tricolor on canvas. Shadows of freedom fighters caught in a moment of agitation are shown as fleeting images in the backdrop.
Born in 1967, Gupta is a self-taught artist His solo shows at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture at Calcutta in l996andattheTajBengalin Calcutta in 1997were highly acclaimed. The Calcutta painter who has now moved to Delhi confesses to a deep-rooted attachment towards nature. The furniture he sculpts “are recycled roots”, reminding one of swans, octopuses and antelopes. The exotic blend of flora and fauna ai-e drawn from his early years at the National Library campus.
Nature is also celebrated through vibrant water colour landscapes. ‘Echoing Green ‘gives the impression of hills fringed with trees in turquoise blue and jade green. Gupta paints the passage of time in ‘Personification’ using the metaphor of a landscape. He sees morning as a concept in orange blending into the darkness of the night in ‘Prabhat’.
Sounds, moods and rhythms have deeply affected the artist to give a brilliant sensitivity to his works. Colours flow, merge and forms evolve to create a symphony of subtle and glowing tones.
Timeless metaphors of dreams: Manav Gupta (top) and his paintings
MAY 1999 | Times of India | Poetry On Canvas... Having made waves in Calcutta, Manav shifted base to Delhi.
Having made waves in Calcutta. Manav Gupta recently shifted base to Delhi to colour the city canvas with his brush strokes. His shifting was accompanied by a solo exhibition of his recent works the Timeless Metaphors of Dreams: Interpretations in Paintings, just over a week ago. Sponsored by Taj Palace, the show was Inaugurated by Jacqueline Lindquist. the American Ambassador’s wife. A near total corporate- affair, the Invitees for the opening- were corporate chiefs, bureau- crats and the Capital’s leading socialites .
Spotted that evening among many others were Vikram Dhawan (head of Thomas Cook) and his wife, Dipankar Mukherjee, an established interior designer. Bijoy Chatterjee. joint secretary. Cabinet Secretariat. Manohar of AIFACS. the Ghatates, Mrs. Jagdish Anand, Freni and Russi Bilimoria a. Satthyamoorthy. joint secretary. ministry of Culture, and the NDMC chairman and his wife. Not surprisingly, the show was a total sellout. Almost 60-70 per cent of Manav’s works went during the show. According to the artist. Lindquist was the first to buy his works. “Jacqueline went over the moon over the paintings. Arriving before the show formally opened, she bought a few for her private collection,” says Manav.
Those who missed his first show in Delhi can watch out for his next show, to be presented by Citibank and perhaps the Ministry of Culture.
June 04, 1999 | The Statesman | Progressing On Promise. Abstraction or realism, Earth tones dominate the works of Manav Gupta
MANAV Gupta is an artist, he is a poet as well as an artist. He has developed a new idiom to depict his ideas— rather than themes — under the title |’Metamorphosis of Time’. The series was on display at the Banquet Hall of Taj Palace hotel this week. If the series is on interpretation and recreation of his dreams and recollection of episodes and anecdotes during his journey through the passage of time, it’s also the medium for self-discovery.’ There is a strange feeling with which most of his work is charged. If it’s not super reality, it’s certainly fanciful which evokes reaction which is has define on every 0ccassion . However, at the personal level, there is an under-current of pathos, out of the artist’s deep feeling for the suffering humanity.
Thus, if the artist is not a preserver or a revolutionary, the little he can do is to share his feelings with his fellow human beings. This concern, perhaps, means a lot. ‘through the expression of eyes, and at times the compositions, he has brought out various emotional elements of the past, tucked away in the form of memory. Here is emotion recollected in tranquility He has: further expressed his notions on many
time’ with a technique near-perfect.
Manav’s works are mostly figurative where faces and motifs are definitely those of a female as a metaphor. Not in a well-defined manner — even as most of these paintings have a personal touch — these motifs tend to reach out to all and fathom all time, back and forth, as they to hearts. Thus, it’s the universe that pervades the paintings.
There are not as much experiments in colour as in oil or in other media. From that view, Manav seems to have done a good job! He has adopted different means from time to abstraction, semi-abstraction and realism Earth tones dominate all his works which have clarity and transparency.
5 September 1999 | Hindustan Times HT Sunday Magazine | Painting It His Way
By Poonam Goel
Manav Gupta may have shifted loyalties from native Kolkata to apni Dilli. for this is “the happening city as far as art is concerned.” but for the 32-year-old “self-taught”’ water colourist. Calcutta is where his heart lies. Delhi. however, seems to have taken to Manav. who’s the first young painter to have his work displayed in the office of the Joint
Secretary (Culture) S. Satyamurthy. It is the Human resource Development Ministry’s attempt to showcase the country’s emerging art talent.
“My first big exposure to the world of art happened when Calcutta’s Birla Academy of Art gave me an opportunity to hold my first solo exhibi- tion of water colours in 1996 recalls the Presidency College Physiology (Honours) graduate. “It was a bold experiment, the first of its sort, because the Academy’s open-air studio was before this known only for its kala melas and group shows.”
What he didn’t learn at art school, he made up by absorbing the beauty of the lush green campus of Calcutta’s National Library, where his father was the Deputy Director. ”I feel lucky 1 lived in virtually an island in Calcutta with greenery all around me.” Manav says. “If nature inspired me in my artistic endeavours, the openness of my parents to new ideas helped me. too.” And that’s why he had no problems switching over to a profession he never trained for.
Not that there weren’t any obstacles. “Like any other struggler in the field, 1, too. have fought my way till here. There was no family wealth or guru to fall back upon. So many times I have had to personally seek out corporate houses to sponsor a show,” says Manav.
JULY 1999 | First City | Preview | Art Timeless Metaphors And Dreams.
Having made waves in Calcutta. Manav Gupta recently shifted base to Delhi to colour the city canvas with his brush strokes. His shifting was accompanied by a solo exhibition of his recent works the Timeless Metaphors of Dreams: Interpretations in Paintings, just over a week ago. Sponsored by Taj Palace, the show was Inaugurated by Jacqueline Lindquist. the American Ambassador’s wife. A near total corporate- affair, the Invitees for the opening- were corporate chiefs, bureau- crats and the Capital’s leading socialites .
Spotted that evening among many others were Vikram Dhawan (head of Thomas Cook) and his wife, Dipankar Mukherjee, an established interior designer. Bijoy Chatterjee. joint secretary. Cabinet Secretariat. Manohar of AIFACS. the Ghatates, Mrs. Jagdish Anand, Freni and Russi Bilimoria a. Satthyamoorthy. joint secretary. ministry of Culture, and the NDMC chairman and his wife. Not surprisingly, the show was a total sellout. Almost 60-70 per cent of Manav’s works went during the show. According to the artist. Lindquist was the first to buy his works. “Jacqueline went over the moon over the paintings. Arriving before the show formally opened, she bought a few for her private collection,” says Manav.
Those who missed his first show in Delhi can watch out for his next show, to be presented by Citibank and perhaps the Ministry of Culture.
3rd June 1999 | ART SCENE | Delhidiary | Manav Gupta's "India Awaiting"
Manav Gupta’s ‘India Awaiting*
Self-taught artist Manav Gupta holds his first solo exhibition at the Ta|| Palace Hotel from May 28 to 30
Manav has recently moved to Delhi from Calcutta where he is well kriown in the art aretes, has/ing exhibited at the Birla Academy o# Art and Culture and at The Taj Bengal as well as in numerous group shows His works are exhibited in number I
of private and public collections including the permanent gallery of the Birla Academy and in corporate houses He has developed concepts and packages for several leading corporate houses with art as a medium Manav has also had his poems published in anthologies in Hindi and English He has also developed concepts for All India Radio and Doordarshan.
The catalogue of his last exhibition in Calcutta opens with a foreword by Paritosh Sen where the renowned artist writes ,” From a very modest beginning he (Manav) has been slowly and surety developing as a very promising painter He has learnt a lot and is still learning as we all do this is an inevitable and necessary process I am particularly impressed at his present stage of developement by his acute sense of coloration Nature in all its mystenous manifestations seems to have
gripped his mind Manav is equally at home with oils and other mediums Given his imagination and perseverance I am sure he & soon going to achieve something very significant min his work
That was in 1997 Since then Manav has also put together a book ‘metamorphosis of time at a juncture when one millennium moults into another which should be in print soon. The theme of the book is the same as that of the paintings, poems ( including Haiku) images and functional sculptures punctuating walls and spaces. India Awaiting is a celebration of exploring the self in the environment of compelling images and poems
JUNE 1999 | Times of India | MUST SEE MUST DO | Delhi Times |
Timeless Metaphors of Dreams Interpretations in paintings by Manav Gupta. At the Exhibition Hall, Hotel Taj Palace. From May 26 to May 30. 9.30 amt to 10 pm His exuberant and reflective paintings depict his acute sense of colouration.
At IIC From Jun 01 to 12 at 6.30pm daily
June 1 Mustard Bath. Directed by Darell Wask.
June 2 Margaret’s Museum. Directed By Mort Ransen.
June 3 The Strange Blues Of Cowboy Red. Directed by Rad Raxten.
June 09, 1999 | The Observer | A Poet and A Painter
By Nandini Dasgupta
Manav Gupta’s work of water colours are exuberant and expressive and reflects the sensitivity of his subject.
Caught in the rat race of this fast moving mechanised world, the most exhilarating events for a common man are, perhaps, the memories of his childhood. Walking through the woods and collecting pebbles from the riverbed, fabricating and designing of mud huts, gathering flowers moistened by dew drops are the small and common instances of childhood which one experiences.
Manav Gupta, in his first- ever exhibition in New Delhi, attempts to depict these childhood memories which often _appear as dreams and keep coming “back to us from time to time.
And along with portraying his thoughts, he pens them down too with a rare sensitivity to his subjects.
With a fine sense of colour, the paintings titled Timeless Metaphors of Dreams are exuberant and reflective.
The delicate shades of water colours exploit the ambient fluidity of the medium for a language that poetic.
The 50-odd collection, displayed ‘at the Capital’s Taj Palace last week, represented the freshness and originality of thoughts that only a poet could think of.
One such work which attracted quite an attention was a painting which depicts a young village woman gazing into the open sky from a window.
Titled as Flight, the rare piece of art reflects the dreams of the world she will take off to.
Of particular mention was the painting Mind echoing the labyrinthian darkness which evoked images that one no longer can recognise. Manav pens his thoughts on this work as “desires and dreams blind my rage and a thousand tulips ^owout of the iridian consciousness.” It is his thoughts — the last line of his poems that makes Manav tick. The sensitive exploration of earth’s and life’s different hues springs out of his thoughts on the memories.
His expression on earth’s metamorphosis in his paintings is a reflection of his imagination. His work titled River is a confluence of more than three shades of water colours which bring out differences in the various layers of water in the river signifying the different phases of happiness and sorrow which fills a man’s life. Manav writes,” Filling my vacuums with weightless pebbles, I drink from the river of time.. .1 assert I am alive.”
Continuing in the same line he further expresses, “So much to carry, so much to think, the man goes the distance seeking shadows in blinding light.”
May 1999 | India Today | Recommendations | Works by Manav Gupta
Thirty-two-year-old Manav Gupta is a self-taught artist who also dabbles in poetry and sculpture. Says artist ParitoshSen:
“I am impressed By his talent and sense of colouring.” Equally at ease with oils as well as other media, Manav has held solo shows at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta, and the Taj Bengal and also participated innumerous group shows. His works form part of corporate and private collections. An artist to the core, Manav also works wonders with abandoned roots and twisted tree trunk create furniture that is one of a kind—
May 31, 1999 | Outlook | Art & Culture | He Is Different
Ordinary, mediocre folk‘ like you and I would never understand it: that talented people not only begin early, they think differently too.
So, when Manav Gupta was presented with a box of crayons at the age of one, most thought the gift to be a trifle too early. The one-year old didn’t think so: the colour sticks became tools for his future career. Now, after successful solo exhibitions at the Birla Academy of Art and Taj Bengal, Gupta is set to launch a first-of-its-kind book, India Awaiting—Aide- Memoire To A Dream, which sketches stages in a person’s life and also has a page attached wherein readers can maintain a diary of their own lives. “I thought others may have similar thoughts and feelings and this book would be an excellent opportunity to give vent to their dreams and aspirations,” he says. “Dreams are visions about the future and everyone has a right to plan his future.”
Gallery Freedom, V-hai:
Exhibition of water colours by Manav Gupta at the second summer show. At V-Hai, B-40 institutional area. Till July 15. From 11 am to 7 pm.