Sculpture Magazine

Vessels of Life: A Conversation with Manav Gupta | July 8, 2020

by Chitra Balasubramaniam

“Manav Gupta affirms the age-old sanctity of earth and clay, assembling everyday objects made by potters from across India to create huge installations that convey hope, passion, and the journey and transience of life. Using just a few types of functional items—the diya lamp, the kullad tea cup, and the chilam smoking pipe—he succeeds in creating something contemporary yet timeless in its ability to tell a powerful story. Massed in their hundreds and thousands, these humble items gain new significance, as tradition reimagined makes an eloquent case for sustainable practices that respect the earth’s resources while transforming the familiar into something completely unconventional, unexpected, and magical.” – Sculpture Magazine

“I am simply walking the path of infinity with a life dedicated to art. If my humble drop in the ocean can help bring about the change in thinking that is so needed in today’s crass, commercialized, mechanized existence, if it can add a dab of spiritual context to the world as it takes art and culture as a vehicle of change across boundaries, it makes my artistic process that much more fulfilling” – Manav Gupta

2020 | Life and Literature | Sublime and Sacred in the Works of Manav Gupta | BOOK | Manohar Bandopadhyay | Essay | ISBN 978-93-90155-79-8

It is difficult to draw your eyes away from any work of Manav Gupta who moves you with his ecstatic shade and light so profoundly that you do not know what to admire and what to leave out from mention. there is nothing that calls for lesser attention. you certainly hold your breath in admiration of the artist’s emotion that exalts us all to ecstasy.

 

Nature and myth are the recurrent leitmotifs of Manav Gupta who handles them in his unique way. For him myth is real and spiritual. In a work where a mythic tree stands in the foreground of nature with a hanging bell he crystallizes the sacredness and sublimity where you are at once moved with the archetype and the ritual. it is deeply spiritual quite affirming what Clive bell maintained in his art criticism, “….the emotion expressed in a work of art springs from the depths of spiritual nature.” Manav succeeds to inspire intense aesthetic emotion in the spectator. Notice the depth of colour and the human forms in gay abandon on the trunk of the tree. Rarely do we find such an originality in the creative imagination of an artist. Look at his yet another work, “dance of salvation”. Deep and ecstatic, it drives you through congregation to the journey’s end where the soul opens out to merge with eternity. The finite anxious to embrace the infinity. It appears, an ascetic resides in the psyche of the artist. It is something beyond esoteric and mystic. it may be the artist is conjuring illusive pursuit of what is eternal and absolute. whatever his motif, he for sure, makes us spiritually alive.

 

Manav’s some of the abstract works help us to see through creative symbolism. These facets are eloquently brought about by the painter inducing your critical faculty override the emotional quest. There is a lyrical touch in the elegance of Manav’s aesthetic emotion. In a work set against the fade-out of nature we are face to face with the primordial men in a land suggestive of Elysium. The characteristic ecstasy is modulated to a reflective harmony – a harmony of thought and emotion. It is a reflective metaphysical pursuit. the artist’s poetic impulse takes over. but Manav holds brush and quill together. A painter and poet he lets the stream of poetry flow into his work just as his light and shades lend a phenomenal touch to his numbers. in one of his poems he says: “with paints I draw/ which was/ and what is/ can one sketch what will be?”

 

 

water - the new gold

‘City in a City’. Half An Acre. 20ft Tubewell. A public art museum on water.

A versatile solo repertoire of sculptures, installations, murals, architecture design using highway scrap material are all integrated and interwoven together in a beautiful story of museum like objects, in open public space, highlighting the importance of water in a city’s sustainability and narrating the benefits of imbibing the five elements in the modern way of life while paying tribute to the local rich heritage as ‘ode to Odisha’.

THE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN & CREATION OF ‘CITY IN A CITY’ – recycling discarded concrete cubes, used in construction for load testing and then thrown, for designing and creating a seven tower city.

 

THE GIANT SCULPTURE OF HAND PUMP (20ft High) – Deploying his signature statement of using common man’s rural objects like the hand pump to transform it into a giant sculpture in gold to resonate the message – ‘water is the new gold’.

SEVEN TOWER MURALS – A cleverly crafted story of water and sustainability with different views of a 360 degree perspective intertwined with a vivid tribute to Odisha’s rich heritage and its iconic monuments, art and culture

 

CARVED SCULPTED GROUND PAINTINGS: The river, snow, fertile land and water have all been painted to bring to light the contrast that emerges with the perils of climate change. After carving and chiseling the ground, the Smart mechanism of sustainable development reflects in the landscaping of the area to form a connection from the source of water – (the Hand Pump metaphor) and the city, through river tributaries that sustain a city, that have been built with boulders placed as breakers. Original hand pumps that pour back water into the pathways, have been used to highlight the importance of respecting the recycling of water and replenishing it besides non wastage.

 

THE  SABHAGHAR:  ‘a  city  needs  breathing  spaces  that  need  to  be designed  as  sustainable  architecture’  –  the  artist’s  statement  is  reflected  in  the ‘pagoda sheds’, and the common man’s thrones that has been created to link it with ‘The giant throne of the sun and five elements’. He sums up the story by excavating the teachings of history with the local context of ‘Emporer Ashoka’s edict inscription in Odisha’ that he has creates on a recycled slab.

2019 | Bibliographic Index

April 24th, 2019 | Orissa Post One of India’s leading contemporary artists Manav Gupta has beautified the Rasulgarh flyover under NHAI project ‘An Ode to Bhubaneswar’

June 5 2019 | TIMES OF INDIA, BHUBANESWAR TIMES | NEWS TNN Article by Sandip Bal | Artist creates India’s first public art museum on water and sustainable development.

Nov 4th, 2019 | Ministry of Water Campaigns
Ganga Utsav Min of Water Resource, GIZ Inaugural Performance jugalbandi with Ganga Anthem song, live with Minister’s presence on stage.

5th JUNE 2019 | KIITS NEWS | KiiTIS Announces Mr. Manav Gupta as ‘Brand Ambassador for Art and Sustainable Development.

April 22, 2019 | Pragativadi PRAGATIVADI (ODIYA).

April 19, 2019 | SAMBAD (ODIYA)  
April 17, 2019 | Indian Express

June 28th 2019 | Bhubaneswar Times Digital VIdeo | Internationally acclaimed artist Manav Gupta creates India’s first public art museum on water and sustainable development at Rasulgarh square.

June 11th 2019 | Sambad ART FOR VALUE OF WATER SAMBAD (ODIYA).

May 31st 2019 | PRAGATIVADI (ENGLISH EDITION) By Pragativadi News Service Article by Ananya Pattnaik | An Ode To Bhubaneswar: “City In A City” Masterpiece By Manav Gupta.

May, 2019 | Nitidin | World’s first public art Museum in Capital of Odisha with 20 ft of tube well. International artist Manav Gupta has given memorable art in Rasulgarh.

April 29th, 2019 | SMARTCITY BHUBANESWAR | Artist creates pathbreaking art using construction scrap.

April 27th, 2019 | My City Links By Monalisa Patsani Here’s why Manav Gupta’s ode to Bhubaneswar is creating waves.

April 24th, 2019 | Daily Hunt | An ode to Bhubaneswar

June 5 2019 | TIMES OF INDIA | Artist creates India's first public art museum on water and sustainable development.

If you are passing through Rasulgarh Square and notice a giant tube well and a series of painted building-like structures, don’t be surprised. This busy traffic junction that connects Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri is getting a makeover. The roundabout at the center of the crossroads under the flyover was being used as a scrapyard to store construction debris. But now, it’s getting a new lease of life through a series of art installations and murals deemed India’s first public art museum on water
and sustainable development. It has been conceptualized and created by internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Manav Gupta. He has been working relentlessly for over two months to give the square a beautiful look.

According to Manav, the art installations are not mere structures, but are the elements of a concept, the city in a city — sustainable city, smart
city, and are made up of scraps from the bridge. “It’s an effort to engage common people through public art. In our country, public art is a rare thing. So, I have tried to introduce my concepts, which are mostly about transforming pottery into large installations. I wanted to bring this concept to Bhubaneswar and use the scraps lying around. Since pottery may not be feasible here, I used concrete scraps and debris,” he added. He has used the concept of Earth, which when pronounced in Hindi,
Arth, gives it two meanings — ‘meaning’ and ‘wealth’. And in keeping with that Manav has put up three installations — a giant 20-foot tube well, a city of concrete blocks and murals. “A tube well was used in villages as a source of clean water, but no one uses it these days. It’s a symbol of pure water from within the Earth. I have made this installation from scraps. I used waste concrete blocks used for pressure testing
during the flyover construction to create the city within a city. I have made flowing pathways that look like rivers from tube well to the city.
This charts the path water takes from its source to households,” he said.

The installation city reflects the architectural design of an urban centre, with unique murals on the seven towers. These murals are a tribute to Odisha and the city of Bhubaneswar, with various elements specific to the city like the Lingaraj temp le, Odissi and more. Manav said one side of the city installation depicts realism and other, sustainable development. “I was invited to create this public art after having worked in many places across the globe. Bhubaneswar has been noticed all across for its recent achievements like holding a hockey World Cup and becoming the smartest city in India,” he added.
Manav, who had left the city ahead of cyclone Fani and
returned after it, told us that it was as if he was seeing a different city. “While the cyclone caused so much destruction all around, I feel
blessed that my installations were not affected. It was a humbling experience after having spent 20 years of my life visualizing and creating these types of environmental art installations,” he added.
To his credit, Manav has six most iconic and revolutionary art projects in India this decade. Once finished, the installations will be maintained by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and would act as major tourist attraction.

May 31, 2019 | PRAGATIVADI | An Ode To Bhubaneswar: “City In A City” Masterpiece By Manav Gupta

One of India’s top ten eminent contemporary artists, Manav Gupta, who has established himself as an ambassador of contemporary art, culture and evolution in the creative field has now created another first of its kind Public Art Museum on Water and Sustainable Development in Bhubaneswar.

Having created the six most revolutionary solo art shows of the decade on Indian soil, the iconic Delhi-based artist has invented the use of pottery for mega installations starting an avant-garde art movement that transforms local craft to cutting edge international contemporary language for sustainable development.

Currently, Gupta, who has been in Bhubaneswar for nearly two months, is building his Public Art Museum on Water and Sustainability as his first set of installations in the city. Rendered as “An Ode to Bhubaneswar. Tribute to Odisha” the artist has succeeded in creating a “city in a city – sustainable city, smart city”.
When he was invited for the task of creating one of his unique installations at Rasulgarh, Gupta conceptualised and created a first of its kind city as an extension of his signature Travelling Museum from his ‘arth – art for earth’ statement. As he puts it ‘arth in Devnagri means ‘wealth’ and ‘meaning’ – the true wealth of humanity is earth’s resources, hence my public art project across the world…and he made it by recycling waste construction material from the site scrapyard.The Permanent Museum installation covers almost all the aspect of the smart sustainable city as well as the cultural aspect of Odisha through his cutting edge language of contemporary art blending in traditional icons to give the vital message of sustainable water as earth’s precious resource.The public art museum project being built under the Rasulgarh flyover shows the culture, history, and the progress of the city along with the need to save the environment.

Not only has he been a former Expert Committee Member of Republic Day celebrations and first artist-in-residence at the Rashtrapati Bhawan invited personally by Dr Abdul Kalam, but also is the only artist to be invited by Environment Ministry to create one-minute-films on climate change. He is listed by Financial Times among the top ten contemporary Indian artists whose works would fetch good returns.

Some of his iconic artworks that have secured themselves in books of records and many international media include – a ten thousand sqft world-record, five-floor mega mural “Tree of Life’ at Airtel, Indo-Bhutan friendship mural in Bhutan– commissioned by External Affairs Ministry, the giant Ganga ‘Waterfront’ Installation in Delhi at India Habitat Centre, the Mega ‘Museum in a Mall’ Yamuna Public Art Project at DLF Mall of India, the iconic ‘arth – art for earth’ hosted by Ministry of Culture in Delhi for six months last year, a private one acre Sculpture Park at Amrita Shergill Marg as a prototype of a permanent museum of clay; as also his pioneering collaborative interdisciplinary projects including the ‘concept of art and music ‘Jugalbandi’.

As Gupta states, “The denizens can witness the culture and the rich history of the city on the load testing concrete blocks, placed one on top of the other to create the seven-tower-buildings-of-the-city of the smart city. On the other hand, the 20 feet tall giant tube well-built of scrap material shows how precious water is for humankind. Giant tube well, as a metaphor of pure life-giving water of Mother Earth, which is fast becoming a museum entity. As water is the most precious resource that is blessed to us by the Earth, the tube well is painted in the colour gold to represent its value.”

The River Water pathways connecting the tube well and the ‘city’ that nourish the city which recycles its water.The white patches on the ground represent snow. ” Though Bhubaneswar has not witnessed snowfall, if we do not take care for our nature then someday it might be an Ice Age,” Gupta said.

The other side of the genius architectural construction with concrete blocks show the Dhauligiri, Lingaraja temple and Lord Jagannath’s imagery, a representation of the Temple City, along with the vast art and culture of the state. The artist has especially also painted a version of three of his signature paintings that are already auctioned by Christie’s from his ‘umbilical cords of earth’ series.
While many artists had used Public art as a medium to showcase the state’s culture on the city’s walls with mural art, this masterpiece is a unique epic in the artist’s idea, innovation, creativity, scale, diversity and the message to save our environment, for which artist was glad and feels humbled that he got a chance to engage with the people of the state through his art and its message.
For Gupta, nature has always been his muse, as also his work of two decades conveying the message of environment, so when the extremely severe cyclonic storm FANI struck Odisha and tore through Bhubaneswar, Gupta just prayed nature to spare his project from its wrath. Believing in the ‘power of thought’ he submitted his art to the Universe and feels blessed at the miracle that the 20-feet tall installation with metal scrap and the artistic blocks remained completely unscathed by the giant storm.Having been regularly quoted by critics, leading experts and luminaries from various walks of life as ‘one of India’s most erudite and versatile contemporary artists’, the ‘maverick genius’ of ‘pioneering innovations’, ‘piped to be the next big thing in international art’ and ‘a master of light and colour’ the latest iconic creation by the artist should go a long way in adding to the assets and attractions of the state for its local people as well a must visit contemporary attraction for international tourists visiting Odisha.

arth - art for earth

Punctuating 27 Acres. Hosted by Ministry of Culture. | Travelling Excavated Public Art Museum of art for earth (cont.)

5th June 2018 – 17th December, 2018.
(Extended twice by Public demand)

sculpture garden

Sculpture Garden, Private Collectors’s residence, Amrita Shergill Marg, New Delhi

Mid 2017 – May, 2018.

2018 | Bibliographic Index

July 14, 2018 | The Pioneer Chahak Mittal | Dust To Dust …And All Shapes In Between.

July 19, 2018 | The Statesman  Aruna Bhowmik | A wealth of meaning.

July 24 2018 | Amar Ujalaa | Topic | Manav Gupta

July 26, 2018 | Flash News  APJ Abdul Kalam The Life Tree Illustrations By Manav Gupta.
 
July 29, 2018 | The Tribune India | Swati Rai Clayscapes – Manav Gupta’s Arth — Art for Earth carries forward his commitment towards innovation and sustainability.

July 30, 2018 | Twitter Web @IGNCA  India’s most erudite & versatile contemporary artist, Manav Gupta redeploys quintessential Indian clay pottery at IGNCA, 11 Mansingh Road till Oct. 22
 
July 30. 2018 | Indian Express | Pallavi Chattopadyay From Sand To Dust.

August 30, 2018 | EventBrite | Team Earth | Arth Art Of Earth.

September 09, 2018 | Swarajya Magazine Sumati Mahrishi | Down To Earth.

September 16, 2018 |   Hindustan Times | HT City |  Making art of earth – Artist Manav Gupta’s innovative art installations highlight the importance of environment conservation and connecting with nature.

September 24, 2018 | E Times  Arth Art For Earth By Manav Gupta.

Oct 17, 2018  Punjab Kesari TV | news channel YOUTUBE  World’s first ever travelling Museum for Contemporary Public Art.

Oct 17, 2018  Navodaya Times  news channel on YOUTUBE  World’s first ever travelling Museum for Contemporary Public Art

02-Nov-18 | Navodaya times क्लाइमेट चेंज पर बेहद खूबसूरती से संदेश दे रही है मानव गुप्ता की ‘Arth- art for earth’ प्रदर्शनी

Nov 2nd-18 | PUNJAB KESARI NEWSPAPER  बेहद खूबसूरती से संदेश क्लाइमेट चेंज पर दे रही है मानव गुप्ता की ‘Arth- art for earth’ प्रदर्शनी.

Nov 7th, 2018 | TEDx Talk  Creating Art for Earth | Manav Gupta | TEDxYouth@TheShriramMillenniumNoida  Creating Art for Earth | Manav Gupta | TEDxYouth@TheShriramMillenniumNoida.

Nov 19, 2018 | Lecture at LPU University  YouTube Video Manav Gupta | Arth – art for earth | Lovely Professional University – 2018 TEDxYouthTheShriramMillenniumNoida  Introducing our first speaker, Mr. Manav Gupta – An eminent artist, Founder & Creative Director ‘Arth – art for earth’.

September-October 2018 | IGNCA MAGAZINE  Vihangama  Mati Tere Roop Anek.

September 14, 2018 |   facebook  IGNCA Page & Manav Gupta Page arth dialogues at the waterfront.

October 22, 2018 |   facebook  IGNCA Page & Manav Gupta Page arth dialogues at the waterfront.

2018 | Sangam Paintings by Manav Gupta. 

2018  | The Luxury Chronicle | Manav Gupta’s Global Art Project’s latest: ‘Rain’ for 2018 feb.

25, 2018 | New India Express | Medha Dutta Yadav The Sunday Magazine  I want to make art available to all.

March 14, 2018 |   Doordarshan National  INTERVIEW You Tube Aaj Savera : An Interview With Manav Gupta : Eminent Artist And Thinker.

July 04, 2018 |National Herald | Navjeevan E Paper | India in Picture.

July 04, 2018 | Twitter Web co tweet, Minister Of Culture Government of India, Mahesh Sharma Minister Opening tomorrow: Arth-Art for Earth-The Excavated Museum of Clay by Manav Gupta July 5, 2018 7.00 pm IGNCA Lawns, 11 Mansingh Road, New Delhi.

June 05, 2018 | CNN News 18 Simantini Dey | Delhi-Based Artist, Manav Gupta, Weaves Poetry With Art on Environment.

June 05, 2018 | Twitter Web @MinOfCulureGoI On World Environment Day IGNCA presents excavations in hymns of clay, first of its kind in the world environmental art installations on sustainable development by eminent Indian contemporary artist Manav Gupta. 

July 05, | 2018 Millennium Post Team MP | Redefining The Meaning Of Art With Arth.

July 5, 2018 | The Quint  Art Exhibition Opens At IGNCA

July 5, 2019 | Official WebSite, Govt Of India Ministry Of Culture, Min of Culture Official Announcement, Details of Exhibition event and Period  Arth-Art for Earth-The Excavated Museum of Clay by Manav Gupta.

July 05, 2018 | Press Information Bureau Govt Of India Ministry Of Culture Arth Art For Earth.

July 05, 2018 | IGNCA PROGRAMME NEWS  Arth Art Of Earth The Excavated Museum Of Clay :Manav Gupta.

July 05, 2018 | The Daily Pioneer  Team Viva IGNCA Showcases Arth Art For Earth.

July 05, 2018 | IGNCA INVITATION  Arth Art Of Earth.

July 05, 2018 | IGNCA  Arth Art Of Earth The Excavated Museum Of Clay.

July 05, 2018 | Daily Hunt Redefining The Meaning Of Art With Arth.

July 05, 2018 | Business Standard  Arth Art Of Earth.

July 06, 2018 | Sawdust | Sasikala Raje | Art For Earth.

July 06, 2018 | Prokerala.com  Time Machine Manav Gupta.

July 07, 2018 | Freshers Live Vamsi Atherya Arth at IGNCA New Delhi.

July 13, 2018 | India Heritage Desk | Exhibition: Arth Art Of Earth Manav Gupta.

July 14, 2018 | Dainik Bhaskar Mitti ki khushbu.

July 14, 2018 | Jagaran chillam se bahi ganga, diyon se barkha.

July 14, 2018 | Opinion Express Chahak Mittal Giving A New Meaning To Pottery

Play Video

'Arth - art for earth' by Manav Gupta

Times of India Interview

‘Arth – art for earth’ is Indian contemporary artist Manav Gupta’s brainchild of 20 years and it explores the meaning of life. ‘Arth’ means ‘wealth’ and ‘meaning’ in the Devanagri script. Through ‘Arth’, a travelling museum which is scheduled to travel across 29 mega cities across the world, the artist explores the earth and nature and urges us to ‘stop a while’ and think about living a life of environmental consciousness. Arth’s exhibitions in clay started in Pretoria, South Africa in 2013 where it was hosted by the National Museum and Indian High Commission. Since then, owing to the exhibition’s success, it has been showcased at various other locations including Aerocity, New Delhi in 2014; India Habitat Centre, New Delhi in 2015; Old Fort, Delhi in 2016; DLF Mall of India, Noida as the Yamuna Project in 2017 followed by a prototype of his Permanent Museum at Amrita Shergill Marg, New Delhi. The 2018 edition was launched on World Environment Day, hosted by IGNCA, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The artist’s signature suite of ‘excavations in hymns of clay’ is set-up in the 23 acres of IGNCA lawns. The exhibits are made of clay and pottery in different forms imitating nature and are created as ‘excavations’ from ideas of sustainable development. The art installations include ‘The Bed of Life’, ‘The River’, ‘The Beehives Garden’, ‘Rain’, ‘Time Machine, and ‘Noah’s Ark’ and they are made different forms of pottery– earthen lamps (“diyas”), local cigar (“chilam”), earthen cups (“kullar”)– transforming them into monumental art installations which are environment friendly and also supports local artists. What’s more, the travelling museum’s River Waterfront also transforms into a platform for people from different walks of life in the leading megacities to come together and discuss important environmental issues and the need for sustainable development through art poetry and cultural performances. And if we don’t address these problems now, we all will have to be the ‘Noah’s Ark’. The exhibition is currently on-going at IGNCA, New Delhi till October 22, 2018.

TEDx

The Shriram Millennium School Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India | November 7th, 2018

Manav Gupta, an eminent artist and founder of ‘Arth: Art for Earth’, talks about taking art beyond art and deploying it to raise conscious environment. One of India’s top ten eminent contemporary artists, he is a visionary and a thinker who has taken art beyond art and has created a movement over his two decades of career by deploying art to raise conscious environment. A Former Expert Committee Member of the Republic Day celebrations and the first artist-in-residence at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, he is the only artist to be invited by Environment Ministry to create films on climate change and has been acknowledged as a pioneer for reinventing pottery as global Public Art for Sustainable Development, taking local to global and craft to Avant grade art. With three global travelling trilogies, his work has been sold by Christie’s, Bonham’s, and in several private and public collections. His biggest solo commissioned artworks include a ten thousand sq. ft. five-floor mega mural at Airtel and the Indo-Bhutan friendship mural in Bhutan. His work has gained recognition in the books of records and amongst the international media. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

September 09, 2018 | Swarajya Magazine | Down To Arth - How Manav Gupta Uses Meaningful Artwork In Terracotta To Bring Clay Back To Nature

By Sumati Mahrishi

A few years ago, at a display of Delhi-based artist Manav Gupta’s works in Minneapolis, visitors asked him if earthen lamps would survive the snow. Gupta uses clay objects in his body of work, where he embraces nature and architecture. Earthen lamps – his ingredient for the persistent in-depth probe into nature through gigantic installations, were making viewers curious. Gupta’s love for clay, especially the earthen lamp, is deep. So, to quell all doubts regarding life and longevity of clay, he left ‘Shrinking River’, one of the installation works, in Minneapolis snow. Clay, mud, maati – the steel of Indian art history – lies fairly unexplored in public art and other display avenues. Gupta’s work brings it back, from earth to art. He says, “it is a myth that clay cannot stand tough conditions, or that it is perishable. When I left the ‘Shrinking River’ in snow, people were surprised. They understood my belief in clay. They understood clay and its permanence, the fragility of life, our belief in nature and elements as sacred.” He adopted clay as his medium, extensively, in 2013.

No other artist uses clay and pottery in public art like Manav Gupta. His works on nature and climate change are extensive, in harmony with themes and sites he chooses, and soul stirring. In the back drop of the recent Kerala floods, his series, ‘Arth’ (meaning), stands as the most gentle and revolutionary expression of art exposed to rain, trees and sunlight. Depletion of natural resources, recreating and sustaining, are at the core of the series.

At the ongoing exhibition of his works at the grounds of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), stands ‘Ganga the Riverfront and Matighar’, his tribute to Ganga. The work flows, suspended from the roof top of Matighar the iconic art gallery. It presents a striking depiction of the sacred river in its various flows and stages. “In my view, it is a perfect synergy and tribute to Matighar, which has been closed. The Ganga will lose out if we do not care for it. Concern and activism towards the environment doesn’t have to be noisy. I chose to raise my concern by recreating the river and by engaging with people in mega cities.”

He adds, “my first experience of exhibiting a river depicted in pottery outside India was in South Africa. People there were alien to the idea of diyas and what they are about.”Mimicking nature is an art. Gupta uses clay and deploys seemingly mundane objects of pottery – diya (the earthen lamp), chilum (smoking pipe), khullhad (cup) and ghara (pot) to create rain, waterfronts and rain forests, and other aspects of nature and life. He weaves and assembles the clay objects into installation works in painstaking efforts to mimic nature and to arrive at nature – asclosely as he can.

Why clay? “We are clay. Maati. Dust to dust. Hence, clay. I am clay.” Art is about hope. Offering earthen lamps to people in public art, Gupta hopes that people will not discard diyas, which serve as a “conduit of prayer to the sacred”. Clay is a representative of an element. “It represents earth and human,” he says, “we deplete our resources and we are depleting human kind.”There is more to his choice of material. Metaphors. He is unearthing them through simple objects made of clay. “I am scrubbing the soul,” he says. To him, the first realisation of using clay as a drop came from an inverted diya. “There are artists who can create from cerebral thought. For me, it has to be in the heart, the inside. It (clay) kept growing inside.”Watching Gupta’s ‘Waterfront’ for the second time in Delhi (it was displayed first a few years ago), unravels more depth and details in his work. The presence of clay in several strings of diya, chilum and khullhad woven together to form a river and installed at Matighar, involves a layer of meanings. “It is my tribute to Matighar, which translates into an abode of mud, through my work.”The use of the different shapes and sizes of the numerous diya, chilum and khullhad and gharas used in the “waterfront” gives it a sense of flow. The chilum lends it the cascade, diyas the flow, kullhads – the break in the flow – pace and momentum, and pots – the gurgle, hollows and rocks. Gupta is aware of the ripples of emotions the ‘Waterfront’ creates in the viewer. “Maano to Ganga, Na maano to behta paani (it’s all in the perception – of Ganga as Ganga or Ganga as flowing water),” he says.Gupta relies on architecture and nature to produce installation works out of material, which, if not meticulously blended into his philosophy and thought, would mingle in surroundings – as any other mundane clay object meant for use, as dust. In his art work, these objects become more than mere ‘useful’ kiln-burnt pieces of utility.
They acquire meaning. They become grains of a flow – moments in a story and chapters in Arth, the continuing series of works dedicated to nature and environment. They transform into remnants of an element, beaded together. Assembled together, woven into various patterns with the help of thin wires and knots. “Weaving happens differently. For softer flow, I use chilum,” he adds.In order to connect rivers, people, rain forests and other aspects of nature and life through works of installation that are global in language and Indian in soul, he is required to drop something in particular, regularly. “The pedestal (of high art and perceptions and activism associated with high art).” It is relieving to see his art at a healthy distance from a couple of aspects. First – the elitist approach of looking at nature in language and art work. Second – the piercing cacophony of activism. He believes in simplicity.Time Machine, Beehive Garden, the Noah’s Ark, the Bed of Life are built around metaphors. He wanted to give a message. “The humble clay can serve as luxury.” He adds, “I was surprised to see people at a mall, where my works were displayed, connecting with the works. Similarly, at the most premium addresses in mega cities. People were surprised. They were not sitting at cafes. They were looking at the river. You’ve got to engage the audience right. I believe in people’s intelligence.” He pays attention to viewers’ perception.

At the IGNCA lawns, Gupta’s installations have spent a monsoon – out in the open, under sun, rain, night and day. Clay – maati – his medium for art in Arth develops a warm relationship with the site. “It had to be intrinsic. It had to be Indian. Clay was me.” Gupta describes himself as “non conformist”. He adds, “I have never been in a market-driven exercise (when it comes to works in clay).” He lingers between, around and outside the works, like a protagonist, director and narrator on a unique stage. He is ever present in the continuing drama of a “micro ecosystem” flourishing around his art work and the trees.

Clay talks to the other four elements present at the site in his site specific work in Arth, the series he has pursued over the decades. Its prototypes are housed in his studio in Delhi. The prototypes remain there. The traveling museums (collection of his works) interact with the world and venues. He adds, “Foreign audience is much more impressed, eager and far ahead in terms of wanting the works. As always, it so happens, we (Indians) realise our worth much later.”Rain, his work comprising chilum -the traditional smoking pipe of clay associated with intoxication – strung meticulously into thin wires, succeeds in creating a poetic depiction of rain. The viewer can feel the flow of

drops. The pitter-patter is tapped in a drenching fall in the remarkable use of one element to depict another. Clay for water. Diyas arranged most cleverly on wires define the sense of play in his own understanding of rain and its geometry. “Each strand is important. Each string is important,” he adds.

He catches the flow in broken geometry. He arrives, very close in his work, at the inner texture of the falling rain. It is understood and experienced best when one walks through the strings of clay chilum falling from tree branches. It is while standing between the falling wires studded with the chilum when Gupta’s fine handling of the most simple activity in nature and season, that of rain, arises distinctly. The effect is similar to what a viewer would experience when he sees an object kept between parallel mirrors. This, in particular, is more intoxicating than any intoxication associated with the chilum itself. “I tell my viewers – get drenched in the rain of chilum,” he says.It is fascinating how his work grows and develops for months after he has put up the installations – out in the open. “Trees are my laboratory”, he says. Gupta has  used fallen trees for sculptures in the past. In the current display, the falling of rain in Rain from tree branches has a symbolic significance. Rain needs trees, and trees rain.Rain invites life. Worms, insects, birds, creepers, climbers, and seedlings, live and play on and around this installation. Around Bee Hive – another installation. Around the Bed of Life, yet another installation that symbolises the concept of bed as bedrock of love, life, death. Around Ganga – the Waterfront, which symbolises the scared river, and the flowing of time. And then, there is Noah’s Ark, the intriguing piece in the thought chain and cycle.Human presence is pleasant disturbance. Parakeets fly in and out of the Beehive Garden project – one of the most fulfilling works. Parakeets leave feathers behind as temporary mementos on clay on the  beehives. The cuckoo continues the dialogue with trees. Other birds visiting the trees discuss their daily lives, swinging on the raindrops of clay in ‘Rain’, once in a while. Crows grumble nesting issues. Ants walk their own little miles on sun dried rain-soaked diyas and moss-curled clay curves.

The clay beehives hung on a tree

The beehives are honey sweet punctuation on trees. They display workmanship, thought, patience, control precision and form. Kulhads – in every work – become the cups of life. He says, “It was very difficult to arrive at the most natural depiction of aspects of nature in general and the beehives in particular. For me, it was important that the form of the beehive remains as natural as possible. The larger beehives just followed. A beehive can turn artificial very easily and quickly. One has to be careful.”Gupta tells Swarajya the reason behind using Arjuna and neem trees for this museum (collection of his works). “Arjuna and neem trees are being lynched for their medicinal values. They have to be nurtured. It is a reverse process. We have to nurture trees and, therefore, rain,” he adds.

The act of weaving, beading, threading knotting, tying untying, assembling dismantling – the fundamental fabric of Indian textures, lives and traditions, is the basis of his unique use of clay. Nature begins to twine around the numerous units of clay in his work. But clay, the medium, itself, remains detached and unnerved by continuing activity around it. It stands in the music of bird song and rain.He has to dismantle “each and every unit” for the travelling museum. The reassembling of the units swirls up a new cycle of recreation every time, every display, every site. Earth to art to metaphor and back. “Dust to dust”. No one uses baked clay for public art like Manav Gupta and nothing scrubs the soul better than clay.

July 30, 2018 | Indian Express | From Sand To Dust - Manav Gupta weaves in stories of sustainability using quintessential byproducts of the Indian potter

By Pallavi Chattopadyay

The serenity of the riverbed is disturbed by the onslaught of water making its way into it, instantly bringing to the mind the gushing waters of various falls of the country — such as the Chitrakoot waterfalls or the Kempty Falls. But the fall in question is contemporary artist Manav Gupta’s installation, titled River Waterfront.
Indira National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), the mammoth artwork has been created with thousands of the earthen lamps (diyas) made by potters, local cigar (chillum) and earthen cups (kulhar). It pays an ode to the Ganga, glowing with yellow light at night, and symbolising how the river’s path flows from the mountains and pours into plains and distributaries. Five other tall installations come together to form Gupta’s public art project “Arth – Art for Earth”, serving as metaphors for environmental sustainability. Delhi-based Gupta, who was the first artist-in-residence at the Rashtrapati Bhawan after being invited by APJ Abdul Kalam in 2003, brings out the nurturing qualities of the rain through another installation titled Rain. Chillums, recreating the effect of water droplets, hang from strings from the arjuna and neem trees (known for their medicinal properties) and give a drizzling effect to the garden spread across the 23-acre IGNCA premises. “What we do is peel off the barks and wound the trees for medicinal use. But the rains nurture the trees. The idea for this piece lay around why can’t we, as human beings, nurture the trees instead of taking away from them,” says Gupta. Beehives, made using chillums and kulhars around the branches oftrees, turn into storytellers in Bee-hive Garden, bringing attention to the dwindling population of bees. Gupta says, “The UN has declared the World Bee Day (May 20). Bees are a very important part of ecological system because they help in pollination and that’s how vegetables and crops grow. We are always the consumers. Bees are getting extinct and have been declared an endangered species. These beehives made in clay bring in the element of respecting other beings as well, besides nature.”

Then there is the artist’s own interpretation of Noah’s Ark, wherein a male figure appears holding the sail of a ship, made entirely of the three clay objects. “If we don’t take care of nature, we will need to run away from climate change, and row a boat to save ourselves,” he says.

On the use of over a lakh of diyas to create the river effect in River Waterfront and other artworks in his latest exhibition, Gupta says, “We have all grown up seeing the earthen lamp and it has been part of Indian ethos and spirituality. It has a very strange existence. That touched me. It lies on the roadside and is made by potters and we pick it and let it become the conduit of our prayers to god. Suddenly it becomes sacred. The entire perception changes from nothing to everything. In a minute after ceremonies, it is thrown back again after we have used it. That is the metaphor of the earthen lamp.”In that sense, it is not surprising to see clay objects becoming Gupta’s tools lately, including the massive installation of the Ganga waterfront he created in 2016 at India Habitat Centre’s Plaza steps from his series ‘Excavations in Hymns of Clay’. The 50-year-old says, “The human existence and life is because of nature. We are panchmahabhuta — the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether. We are all dust to dust, and therefore I use clay. Clay and pottery are my mediums and I use nature as a laboratory.”

Noah’s Ark

Gupta is among the few artists in the country who are using art to raise concerns around the environment. He says, “I try and address environmental problems without noise and the usual protest mode of high decibel shouting. But one can sensitise people. If it touches hearts and souls, art is a very powerful medium. Steve Jobs understood it and used it very well for Apple in terms of the way they present their design. Same can be said about the architecture of a city. My other aim is to engage with the masses, and take art out of the gallery and museum spaces.”

Arth, which translates to “meaning” in Hindi, was picked by the artist as the title of his project “to seek meaning and larger truths of life”. He adds, “Artha also means wealth in Hindi. So what’s the true wealth of humanity. It is actuallynature and the natural resources. That is what makes us survive. It is not the money or commercialisation.”

The exhibition is on at IGNCA, CV Mess, Janpath, till October 22

July 14, 2018 | The Pioneer | Dust To Dust …and All Shapes In Between

By Chahak Mittal

Taking a walk at IGNCA, Chahal Mittal observes and understands that Manav Gupta uses pottery to make a statement on preserving the ecosystem and sustainable development.Artist Manav Gupta has given a new meaning to everyday exotic. He has used earthen lamps, tea cups and smoking pipes, unremarkable in their simple functionality, to create remarkable installations in the gardens of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). So while the chillums dangled from branches like rain, the lamps cascaded down concrete steps like a river and the cups honeycombed to form a Noah’s ark. Positing himself at its helm, this is the artist’s powerful message on the art of sustainable living andpreserving Mother Earth before it crumbles and threatens our survival.

Arth: Art for Earth is a concept that the artist has been working on for quite sometime. “For the past two decades, Arth has reigned in my being, my art, my process as the sutradhar. The word arth in Devanagari script refers to ‘meaning’ and ‘wealth.’ I have explored both of them in the context of our existence on this planet as we use the ‘wealth of earth’s resources’ — the five elements (panch   maha bhoot) — as well as our meaning and purpose in life while weare here,” says Manav.

Rain, the first of the six artworks by the artist, has chillums tied together with strands of thread on neem and arjuna trees and are used as droplets falling on the lap of the earth. “My ‘rain’ over half an acre of the lawns, is my tribute and nurturing of arjuna and neem trees  on this earth,” says Manav.

As you walk in the rain, do look at the round beehives perched on the trees, which are made using clay tea cups or kulhars and are huge enough to host a swarm. “I have used clay objects to portray the earth. Diyas are hugely discarded after they are used. The earth seems to have a similar fate, and hence the lamps act as a metaphor.”

As you take a few steps further, we reach the Bed of Life that extravagantly symbolises love, which is “yet another dimension of sustainable development.” The artist shares the intimate statement of love through the use of the masculine and feminine idioms of existence. Despite being fragile, the emotion is ethereal and sublime in its existence, which is why it makes the world go around and upside down.

River Waterfront is an ode to Ganga while Matighar portrays the lyrical formlessness of time along the flow of the river. The multi- dimensional sensuousness of strands of the rain dramatically pouring down against a waterfront is a well-executed poetic device.

As we walk towards the safe entrance of the IGNCA’s block A, our way is blocked by the prodigious Noah’s Ark made with a thousand  chillums and kulhars. “We are all clay and could all be Noahs if we protect ourselves against doomsday by adopting sustainable living. We need to take the future generations of our families and other species to an evolved and secure life,” says Manav.

Predictably enough after the ark, we come to a hardcore message of the Time Machine. The artist uses earthen cups to form an hourglass to highlight the transient nature of our existence. “Water and all the five elements of nature are oursources of sustenance. Ancient civilisations have respected and understood this sanctity. They drew nourishment from the great rivers, be it our sacred Ganga  or the Mississippi. As we grow, it’s time we excavate the ancient philosophy of sustainable living. And we are all clay, dust to dust must return. In between, we just get to shape ourselves,” says Manav. At the end of it, we question how our ignorant habits towards the environment can subtly change the very discourse ofnature. And that is the artist’s larger purpose, to set us thinking.

July 05, 2018 | Press Information Bureau, Government of India: Ministry Of Culture | Arth Art For Earth by Manav Gupta

Press Information Bureau Government of India Ministry Culture

05-July-2018 21:06 IST

Minister of State for Culture(I/c) Dr. Mahesh Shrama Inaugurates exhibition titled “Arth – art for earth” at IGNCA, New Delhi, today.

Union Minister of State for Culture(I/c), Dr. Mahesh Shrama, inaugurated exhibition titled “Arth – art for earth” at IGNCA, New Delhi today.‘ARTH – ART FOR EARTH’ by Manav Gupta consists of “Excavations in Hymns of Clay” – a suite of environmental art installations by Manav Gupta weaving all of them with a storyline and poetry. It is an evolving site, specific and dynamic engagement with the space it has an interface with – whether it be the Travelling or the Permanent editions. Speaking at the event, the Minister said that Culture is our Strength and Identity, and the artists are the people adding strength to this identity. Appreciating the Exhibit he also complimented IGNCA for the efforts. Dr Sachcidanand Joshi, Member Secretary, IGNCA, Shri Ram Bahadur Rai, President, IGNCA, Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Ayog and many other dignitaries were present at the event.

As a public art project, the artist deploys the quintessentially Indian potter’s produce of clay objects such as the earthen lamps (“diyas”), local cigar (“chilam”), earthen cups (“kullar”) to transform their individual identity into metaphors and idioms of sustainability, context, perception and treatment as he conceptualizes and creates large scale avant-garde works; using the rural Indian pottery meant for everyday use, in mass numbers, he deconstructs their age old existence as units to make them lend themselves to another form, be it in a Duchamp like inverted concept or simply rendering them formless. They stun the viewer with the artist’s originality of thought as he produces a cutting edge contemporary language whose global vocabulary is derived from the “local”. In his “excavations” of the spiritual philosophy of sustainable living as espoused in Indian scriptures, he executes an organic engagement of art with architecture and space to explore it in its universal context. While one is lured intelligently within the sensuousness of the ‘Waterfront’, ‘River of clay’, or ‘Rain’ letting one feel the ethereal, emotive content like that of an epic story, Manav’s statement is dipped gently into the essence of the Indian vedic practices to subtly bring to light the repository of solutions that the ancient way of life could offer in today’s context of sustainable development and current issues around rivers like the Ganga. Whether it be the latest “R a i n ” or the “River waterfront” ‘Time Machine’, ‘Bee-hive Garden ’, ‘River Bed of Love’, or the ‘Noah’s Ark’ the fragility of clay juxtaposed with the limitedness of the “cup of life” question the paradigm of Time and human engagement with it in today’s rapidly mechanized and constructed consumerist engagement with earth’s resources. The works, conceptualized, created and constructed taking into consideration the venue – is a sensitive natural interface with the ambience, seeking to engage fresh and locally relevant dialogues and questions that audiences can have with the art and within themselves. 

The exhibition is available for public viewing till the 22nd of October 2018.

June 05, 2018 | CNN News 18 | Delhi-Based Artist, Manav Gupta, Weaves Poetry With Art on Environment

By Simantini Dey

Manav Gupta, a Delhi-based artist, has been using different art forms to talk about environmental issues for more than two decades now. The artist’s claim to fame may have been a five floor high mega mural that has set a world record, but, what makes Gupta’s work unique is his capacity to amalgamate poetry, art, music and several other forms to deliver a profound soul-stirring message on climate change issues. Gupta’s climate change arts aren’t a form of activism for him, but an in-depth inquiry, a thorough investigation of nature. “Nature’s process of creation, as it exists in its timelessness, in its oneness and peace, has all the answers to man’s need of growth, progress and development,” said the artist.If human endeavors first absorb and then adopt these answers in its developmental process, the growth from cities to mega cities and path to progress would not create silent self-digging graves of human extinction,” he added.Gupta, however, is well aware that the ‘silent self-digging graves of human extinction’ he mentions seldom draws public attention, which is why, he is determined to take the movement on climate change to the general public through simple yet unique art that is displayed in public space.The world needs more public art that can influence people, said the artist. Gupta believes that there is a need to think from the heart, rise up and have an overview, take a higher stand. “It’s not an elitist, intellectual, superior pedestal with a language that half the world doesn’t understand. It’s in the delivery of simplicity with elegance that one can create a consciousness,” said Gupta. Gupta’s climate change arts aren’t a form of activism for him, but an in-depth inquiry, a thorough investigation of nature. “Nature’s process of creation, as it exists in its timelessness, in its oneness and peace, has all the answers to man’s need of growth, progress and development,” said the artist.”If human endeavors first absorb and then adopt these answers in its developmental process, the growth from cities to mega cities and path to progress would not create silent self-digging graves of human extinction,” he added.Gupta, however, is well aware that the ‘silent self-digging graves of human extinction’ he mentions seldom draws public attention, which is why, he is determined to take the movement on climate change to the general public through simple yet unique art that is displayed in public space.

The world needs more public art that can influence people, said the artist. Gupta believes that there is a need to think from the heart, rise up and have an overview, take a higher stand. “It’s not an elitist, intellectual, superior pedestal with a language that half the world doesn’t understand. It’s in the delivery of simplicity with elegance that one can create a consciousness,” said Gupta. Because I have always strongly believed that we can never underestimate the intelligence of masses. As an artist I dwell on their intelligence. That’s where possibilities of big change exists,” he added.

So far, Gupta has shown great persistence in trying to involve the public in the discourse on climate change through his work. In little more than 20 years, Gupta has built up a vast catalog of art projects on environment. Gupta started in 1997, when climate change was hardly a topic artists chose to work on.Gupta’s public arts on climate change is extensive. In 2003, as a genesis of his Public Art Projects, Gupta started ‘Plant a sapling on my canvas’ project where he invited people from all walks of life to collaborate with him on the canvas.In 2009, his project Beyond Politics, Beyond Copenhagen, For Our Children consisted of a treatise, a travelling trilogy of art, as well as lectures and films on Sustainable development.However, in 2013 his most significant work on climate change, ‘Excavations in Hymns of Clay’ began. “In 2013 extending my practice in painting, I adopted clay as an extensive medium for my installations for Museums, private space and most importantly gigantic versions at public spaces towards raising environment consciousness,” said the artist.Gupta’s public arts on climate change is extensive. In 2003, as a genesis of his Public Art Projects, Gupta started ‘Plant a sapling on my canvas’ project where he invited people from all walks of life to collaborate with him on the canvas.Gupta’s public arts on climate change is extensive. In 2003, as a genesis of his Public Art Projects, Gupta started ‘Plant a sapling on my canvas’ project where he invited people from all walks of life to collaborate with him on the canvas.”I chose clay because we are all clay. Dust to dust,” he added.“I inverted a Diya (earthen lamp) used it as a metaphor of a drop of water. The power of the message that it generated was heartwarming. People came and sat beside my river in South Africa within the walls of the National Museum and with their hands on chin, sat for hours absorbing the message while they soaked in the tranquility of the medium,” said the artist.

Gupta had also done the ‘River Waterfront’ project where he deployed pottery to connect rivers, waters and the people of the world. Another significant project by Gupta in which he used earthen lamps is the Yamuna Project that was displayed at a big mall (DLF mall) in Delhi. Gupta interspersed different installations like the Waterfront, the Beehives Garden, the Noah’s Ark, the Time Machine and the Bed of Love as site specific engagements of sustainable solutions amidst stores that sold premium global brands.Whether it is the Time Machine, Bee-hive Garden, River Bed of Love, or the Noah’s Ark, the artist, through all these installations wanted to convey the fragility of clay juxtaposed with the limitedness of life. Gupta used these installations as metaphors to outline the rapidly mechanized and constructed consumerist world and its interaction with earth’s resources.”“I make it simple – ‘Keep it simple’ is my mantra… Simple CAN be intriguing and have mystique,” said Gupta. The artist said he finds greatest satisfaction when everyone can relate to his art. That is his driving force.“My art contains enquiry within it, probing hitherto untouched elements of thought,” he said. Activism or concern for climate change need not be all noise or loud or ugly. Quiet can be as penetrating if not more.At a time when world leaders are still denying climate change, it is not only important for scientists to remind people of the magnitude of threat that looms on entire humanity but also for writers, painters, dancing and musicians to help people understand this threat, and provoke them to take actions. They are painting the picture that hits hard.

#ClimateArt is our series to discover how art, music and literature have the potential of changing opinions and beliefs about climate change.

December 28, 2017 | The Luxury Chronicle | Manav Gupta’s Global Art Project’s latest: ‘Rain’ for 2018

India – Manav Gupta’s Global Art Project’s latest: ‘Rain’ for 2018 worldwide Premier

When art resonates with the anguish of the planet, its impact is global. Eminent artist Manav Gupta has been busy with the latest creation in his upcoming Global Art Project for sustainability, ‘Rain’, which is ready for a 2018 Premier worldwide. The genius of Manav Gupta shines forth. It is no wonder that critics had hailed him as the ‘wunderkind’ evenwhen he started out. And after having attained much international acclaim, awards, his works coveted at auctions by Sotheby’s and Christies, Manav remains refreshingly grounded, retaining the enthusiasm and charm of a true genius.At the vernissage in the lush private garden where his installation is set up, the artist spoke about his inspiration and the manifestation of his thought process. The theme of water, earth, sustainability, heritage and consumerism, the transient nature of it all, expressively conveyed with the use of disposable clay cups and lamps, the ‘kullhad’, the ‘diya’, stems of ‘chillum’, as medium. The flowing waters of a river with lighted lamps floating as an ode, the figure of a Noah’s ark, the stunning bee hives or paper wasp nests, his famous hour glass, viewed at the recommended hour post dusk, uses the shadows and the play of light to effectively communicate the message. His installation ‘Rain’, the namesake of the project, fell from the trees in large drops. The showcase is a continuum of his earlier exhibitions, ‘Rivers’ and ‘Excavations in hymns of Clay’, all part of his Global Public Art Project, which has already earned him much acclaim. Ahead of the worldwide Premier of ‘Rain ‘that will unfold across New York, London and Delhi, the exhibition will be open in Delhi for limited previews by invitation only, through January.

July 29, 2018 | The Tribune India | Clayscapes | Manav Gupta’s Arth — Art for Earth carries forward his commitment towards innovation and sustainability.

By Swati Rai

Manav Gupta’s Arth — Art for Earth carries forward his commitment of two decades towards innovation and sustainability. In the installation, he deploys Indian clay objects like diyas, chilam and kulhar and transforms their individual identity into metaphors and idioms of sustainability.

Six installations — Rain, The River Waterfront, Time Machine, Bee-hive Garden, The Bed of Life, and Noah’s Ark — form part of this public art display at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). Through them, the artist seeks to portray traditional Indian pottery as a metaphor for nurturing the environment in a consumerist society. “In Devanagari, arth stands for ‘meaning’ and ‘wealth’. I have explored both these concepts in the context of our existence on this planet as we use a wealth of earth’s resources, the five elements (panch maha bhoot), as well as our meaning and purpose in life while we are here. We all are clay. Dust to dust. My art seeks to submit to this paradigm.

”The River Waterfront — An Ode to Ganga seeks to create awareness about the conservation of rivers and their organic essence to our lives. In The Time Machine, the artist engages with time and its transient passage. In Noah’s Ark, Gupta uses symbolism to underline the relevance of saving the world.

The Beehive Garden Project is a statement on biodiversity and its crucial linkages to sustainable development. The Bed of Life highlights the fact that love is what makes the world go around. The river bed of earthen lamps and earthen cups is symbolic of history, of love, of beginning and the end. Just like the circle of life.He says his focus is on making meaningful art for the masses. He says people might interpret the works in their own way, buthis purpose is to be able to engage in a dialogue around sustainable development through innovative art forms.

July 05, 2018 | Millenium Post | Team MP | Redefining The Meaning Of Art with 'Arth'

Re-defining the meaning of art with ‘Arth’ Team MP5 July 2018 9:28 PM Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts raised the curtain for ARTH – Art for the earth on July 5 at the IGNCA, CV Mess, Janpath, New Delhi. The chief guest for the inauguration ceremony was the State Minister of culture, environment, forest and climate change, Dr Mahesh Sharma. The exhibition which is up for display until October 22 – is the first its kind public art project on the environment by one of India’s leading contemporary artists – Manav Gupta.

Comprising of “Excavations in Hymns of Clay”– a suite of environmental art installations by the artist, weaving all of them with a story-line and poetry. ‘Arth’ is an evolving, site-specific and dynamic engagement. As a public art project, the artist has tried to deploy the quintessentially Indian potter’s produce of clay objects such as the earthen lamps (diyas), local cigar (chilam), earthen cups (kullar), with the idea to transform their individual identity into metaphors and idioms of sustainability, context, perception and treatment. The clay objects and other items displayed in the exhibition will stun the viewer with the artist’s originality of thought as he produces a cutting-edge contemporary language whose global vocabulary is derived from the “local”. Emotive content like that of an epic story, Manav’s statement is dipped gently into the essence of the Indian Vedic practices to subtly bring to light the repository of solutions that the ancient way of life could offer in today’s context of sustainable development and current issues around rivers like the Ganga.

Whether it be the latest ‘Rain’ or the ‘River waterfront’ ‘Time Machine’, ‘Bee-hive Garden ‘, ‘River Bed of Love’, or the ‘Noah’s Ark’, the fragility of clay juxtaposed with the limitlessness of the “cup of life” question the paradigm of time and human engagement with it in today’s rapidly mechanized and constructed consumerist engagement with earth’s resources. The works, conceptualised, created and constructed by the artist while taking into consideration the venue – is a sensitive natural interface with the ambience, seeking to engage fresh and locally relevant dialogues and questions that audiences can have with the art and within themselves

July 05, 2018 | IGNCA | Arth Art Of Earth | The Excavated Museum Of Clay : Manav Gupta

Arth-
Art for Earth-
The Excavated Museum of Clay
by
Manav Gupta

Date: 05/07/2018 – 25/11/2018
Time: 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Venue: Lawns, 11, Mansingh Road, IGNCA, New Delhi

IGNCA cordially invites you to the first of its kind public art project on environment by one of India’s leading contemporary artists.
The art exhibits explore nature as a museum laboratory of art, espousing sustainable development by excavating the philosophies of ancient civilizations, like Indian vedic practices, on environment. The artist converts quintessential rural Indian clay pottery into avant garde contemporary installations that embrace nature through the five elements.

Join us to experience
– Rain
– Ganga the Riverfront and Matighar
– Time Machine
– Noah’s Ark
– The Beehive Garden
– Bed of Life

July 05, 2018 | The Quint | Art Exhibition Opens At IGNCA

New Delhi, July 5 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Culture Mahesh Sharma here on Thursday inaugurated a public art exhibition titled “Arth: Art for Earth”, curated by artist Manav Gupta.
Speaking at the event at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, the Minister said that the “Indian culture is our strength and identity, and artists are people adding strength to this identity”.

With an aim to promote environmental consciousness, Gupta has created six environmental installations, using thousands of earthen lamps (diyas), cigars comes (chillams) and cups (kulhars) as primary material. The material, Gupta says, from the nature and also symbolises it. The works transform the individual identity of these earthen vessels into metaphors and idioms of sustainability, context, perception and treatment. “A diya (an earthen lamp) is discarded after use. I’ve used it as a metaphor for mother earth, which seems to have a similar fate,” the artist said at the inauguration.

He, through these works, has converted “rural Indian clay pottery into avante garde contemporary installations that embrace nature”.
The installations are: “Rain”, “Ganga the Riverfront and Matighar”, “Time Machine”, “The Beehive Garden” , “Bed of Life”, and “Noah’s Ark”.
Through the massive installation on river Ganga’s waterfront, Gupta aims to highlight the solutions “an ancient way of life could offer in today’s context of sustainable development and current issues around rivers”.
The intricate installation symbolises the mountains, from where the Ganga takes birth and then flows down into the plain and forks into distributaries.
Speaking about his installation about rains, he said: “It has been installed on Neem and Arjun trees, barks of which are extracted for medicinal purposes. To (metaphorically) nurture those plants, I’ve created an installation called rain.”
With these works, Gupta hopes to spur dialogues and questions that audiences can have with the art and within themselves. The exhibition is open for public viewing till October 22.

Excavated Museum in a Mall - Millineum Post explores why this solo public art project by any artist is a solo biennale in itself.

Millineum Post

Manav Gupta is truly a unique genius – the thinker and the visionary is hailed by critics as one of the most erudite and versatile contemporary artists today.

Times of India

Artist Manav Gupta uses the most basic terracotta items in our everyday inventory and mounts an installation at a mall to convey his message of ecological sustainability.

The Pioneer

Museum in a Mall - The Yamuna Project

Rain – International Premiere – Private edition.

The museum experience in a mall.

Yamuna Project. DLF, Mall of India.
Hailed as a ‘Solo Biennale’
Museum in a Mall
Mega outreach on DLF Mall of India’s invitation

Painting Donation for Water Health Charity auction USA

2017 | Bibliographic Index

September 13, 2017 | Women Economic Forum New Delhi, India  The ARTH Project  Jan-17  Manav Gupta- The travelling museum at DLF mall of India.

April 17, 2017 | Sankalp Pravah, Prime Minister’s initiative inaugural ceremony by min of culture.

Jan 19, 2017 | Dlf invite Dlf invite.

March 4th 2017 | He is the next big thing in art, an Outlook magazine article says. Times of India calls him one of India’s most erudite and versatile contemporary artists.

His works have been featured in the Bible of art, Blouin Art Info. With four entries in Limca Book of Records, he is listed by Financial Times as one of the ten contemporary artists from India whose works will fetch good returns. This, even as BBC hails his latest project.

Feb 21, 2017 | The Daily Pioneer | Priyanka Joshi | The little clay pot Artist Manav Gupta uses the most basic terracotta items in our everyday inventory and mounts an installation at a mall to convey his message of ecological sustainability.

Mar 2, 2017  Times of India | Niharika Lal | Clay installation at Noida mall gets an extended display.

Dec 05, 2017 Twitter Amitabh Kant | Greatly enjoyed this wonderful exhibition “Excavations in hymns of clay” by artist Manav Gupta. Extremely creative!

Jan 25, 2017 | Times Of India | E Times | Clay lamps and kulhads turn Noida mall into an art museum.

28 Jan, 2017 | Times of India | Uma Nair | The Excavated Museum’ – Manav Gupta is truly a unique genius – the thinker and the visionary is hailed by critics as one of the most erudite and versatile contemporary artists today.

Jan 29, 2017 | Millenium Post | Excavated Museum at the Mall Millennium Post explores why this solo public art project by any artist is a solo biennale in itself. A list of many firsts.

Feb 17, 2017 Amar Ujala | Manav Gupta Excavated Museum At Dlf Mall Noida.

Feb 14, 2017 | Life & More  Celebrated artist Manav Gupta has set up a one-of-its kind travelling museum.

17th feb 2017 नदियों की संस्कृतियों को जोड़ने में लगा ये आर्टिस्ट, चाक मिट्टी का देखिए कमाल  भारत के टॉप टेन आर्टिस्ट में शुमार मानव गुप्ता ने पॉटरी आर्ट के जरिए संस्कृतियों को जोड़ने का बेहतरीन प्रयोग किया है। उन्होंने भारतीय संस्कृति की वाहक गंगा को चाक मिट्टी की कला के जरिए दुनिया की दूसरी नदियों से जोड़ने का रचनात्मक बीड़ा उठाया है, जिसकी तारीफ चारों ओर हो रही है।

28th Feb 2017 | मिट्टी के कुल्हड़ और चिलम से नोएडा में बही ‘गंगा’  Pottery Art Presentation By Manav Gupta Catches Eyeballs In Noida DLF Mall.

January 31, 2017 | Times of India | The Excavated Museum - Manav Gupta

By Uma Nair, Art Critic and Historian

Manav Gupta is truly a unique genius – the thinker and the visionary is hailed by critics as one of the most erudite and versatile contemporary artists today. After a hundred thousand footfalls at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi a year ago at his Ganga waterfront; and taking it across the Mississippi and the Hudson in USA last year as part of his Global Public Art Project on sustainbility connecting rivers of the world, he has created an entire ‘excavated museum’ at the DLF Mall of India at Sector 18, Noida till the 18th Feb 2017 with a suite of five mega environmental art installations that punctuate different spaces in the Mall.Why ‘excavations in hymns of clay’ ? His phiolsophy and artist statement bring out the uniqueness behind the whole first of its kind concept of a solo project of environmental art by any artist as a travelling museum and public art for sustainable development. He says ‘Water and all five elements of nature are our source of sustenance. Ancient civilizations from India to the world over respected and understood this sanctity. While they drew nourishment from the great rivers. Be it our sacred Ganga or the Mississippi. As we grow, its time, we excavate the ancient philosophy of sustainable living. And we are all clay. Dust to dust. My art seeks to submit to this paradigm. Hence ‘excavations in hymns of clay. ‘As a part of his outreach programme of evolving, site specific and dynamic multiple edition solo public art projects across the world he deploys the quintessentially Indian potter’s produce of clay objects such as the earthen lamps (“diyas”), local cigar (“chilam”), earthen cups (“kullar”) to transform their individual identity into metaphors and idioms of sustainability, context, perception and treatment as he conceptualizes and creates large scale avant-garde works; using the rural Indian pottery meant for everyday use, in mass numbers, he deconstructs their age old existence as units to make them lend themselves to another form, be it in a Duchamp like inverted concept or simply rendering them formless.

The River Waterfront

A site-specific installation with the invention of deploying earthen lamps and chilams as an iteration of their metaphors to form the lyrical formlessness of Time along the flow of the river. The multidimensional sensuousness of strands of rain pouring down against a waterfront is thought provoking as a poetic device executed with dramatic presence.

Using the earthen lamp as a metaphor, Manav explores issues of environment consciousness. And also how perception and context interplay each other. The earthen lamp is woven in the cultural-religious fabric of India from time immemorial. And the chilam a means of cheap intoxication to gratify. This humble small clay bowl and the local “cigar” have a nondescript existence and only during that momentary use turn into the medium of gratifying the desires of the soul or the senses. Taken for granted. Anointed when needed. Only revered when in use. Their life is strange Like the Ganges.

Given today’s world of current complex issues of treatment and perception of women as well as earth (referred to as mother earth in many quarters of Indian spirituality) the artist draws a cross spectrum reference of eroding human values using Ganga as the idiom. The pollution of the rivers, the shrinking of water and its availability and such other climate change issues have been in the artist’s ethos of work since beginning. This laying of the river along the banks of the Yamuna at the Mall of India is the artist’s bedrock of opportunity for dialogues across different stake holders of society and cross cultural worlds.

The Time Machine

With the first of its kind use of the potter’s produce of earthen cups to form the hourglass; the artist engages the audience with Time and its ethereal and transient passage. Clay, a naked, earth symbol of existence, resource and sustainability and the cup as the metaphor of Time’s limitedness draw us to explore how we use our resources. The fragility of clay juxtaposed with the limitedness of the “cup of Time” draw an engagement to our waste, perception, passage and interface with Time and Life itself in a rapidly mechanized, capitalistic,

consumerist human interaction with earth along our limited timelines of life.

The introduction of Light within, by the artist, celebrates the awakening of our consciousness and its potential of Hope.This sculpture – installation is philosophical and spiritual, teasing subtle nuances of human intelligence and its emotional quotient on one plane, while at the same time, simple, elegant graceful and celebrating the public engagement with art itself – the exciting possibilities of the potters produce as evolved artistic practice made brilliantly simple by the artist for mass consumption.

Noah’s Ark

The artist uses the symbolism of the Noah’s ark to underline the relevance of saving the world. A cycle of creation, un-creation, and re- creation, in which the ark plays a pivotal role.Noah’s ark is the artist’s imagination of an ancient civilisation in which Noah and his boat were etched in history for saving life on earth from doomsday. The artist excavates his impression of how a buried museum might be discovered that houses the Noah’s Ark and the Time Machine and other such creations that hold secrets of sustainable living and how each one of us need to play a role in saving the wrath of Nature if we keep tampering with it.We are all clay and could all be the Noah to stop a while and protect our own; by adopting a safe methodology of sustianble living that takes the future generations of our own families and other species to an evolved and secure life through the consciousness of preserving our environment.

The beehive garden project

 Bees are an obvious or not so obvious link in the evolution chain and our sustainability. This global beehive garden project is an environmental statement by the artist about biodiversity and its crucial linkages to sustainable development. Manav’s art has always sought to play a bigger role than itself, in creating greater awareness on environment. And it reaches our senses and homes as a captivating reminder with its innovative deploying of “chilams” (earthen rural cigars) and “kullars” earthen cups to create beehives that can occupy every garden and home that keep acting as a gentle creative reminder to us each day to stop a while… and while doing what we are doing, try and add a drop in the ocean in the preservation of bees and biodiversity.

‘Meet me by the riverside’ The bed

Love is what makes the world go around. The artist makes an intimate statement of love through the use of the male and female idioms of existence and how fragile love can be and yet so ethereal. Another dimension of sustainable development.

With the river bed of earthen lamps and earthen cups, a stream seems to emerge from somewhere deep within and flow seemlessly pouring over. The bed is symbolic of history, of love and of a certain hope that the statement ‘meet me by the riverside..’ evokes.

February 21, 2017 | The Pioneer | The little clay pot

By Priyanka Joshi

Artist Manav Gupta uses the most basic terracotta items in our everyday inventory and mounts an installation at a mall to convey his message of ecological sustainability.

Art helps us perceive life in a different way, either through colour, form or its latent narrative. So believes artist Manav Gupta, who has redefined public art spaces in India, and hasmounted his series of terracotta installations, Hymns of Clay, at DlF Mall of India, Noida.This is the first of what he calls his travelling museum.“I want to take out art from museum and gallery spaces and make it available for everybody. let them bring in their own understanding and interpretations. This place gets a footfall of 70,000 people every day, which may not be the case with a museum. A travelling museum at a mall works as an interlude and offers an experiential.” Gupta’s clay exhibits are intended to raise awareness about our ecologically fragile times and the need for sustainability. “The exhibition is about water and the five elements of nature. I have used the most basic and functional items created by a potter since the beginning of time — earthen lamps (diyas), local cigars (chillum) and earthen cups (kulhar). At one level, these items are very personal and intimate. At another level, these vessels are used for very humble experiences. You buy them from the roadside and throw them after use. They represent how casually we treat the earth’s resources. That is the metaphor I have used to drive home the point about sustainability.”Gupta believes that all five elements of nature are our source of sustenance. He says, “Ganga is about the passage of time and that is symbolised by the hourglass, the only symbol of measuring time in the ancient past. So as we grow with time, we excavate the ancient philosophy of sustainable living. And we are all clay, very mouldable. My art seeks to submit to this paradigm.”

 

Flow of river (The waterfront)

“Ganga is close to my heart,” Gupta adds. In this exhibit, he uses chillum and diyas to depict the ebb and tide of life. He uses lamps because they are woven in the cultural-religious fabric of India from time immemorial while the chillum depicts cheap intoxication and sensory gratification. And life is perennially a conflict of both our higher and lower selves.

History recall (The time machine)

 In this installation, Gupta uses terracotta cups to form an hourglass. “Time Machine recalls the mechanised lives we lead without respecting sustainable living and resources. I use cups here as a symbolic measure of limited time.” The fragility of clay juxtaposed with the finite nature of the cup draws attention to our wasted perception, of our rapidly capitalistic, consumerist human interaction with earth along our limited timelines.

Love (Riverside bed)

This one is about stringing life till the end. It’s a symbol of the history of love through the use of the male and female idioms of existence and how fragile love can be and yet so ethereal. “My purpose of choosing this element is that without love we don’t exist,” says Gupta. With the river bed of earthen lamps and earthen cups, a stream seems to emerge from somewhere deep within and flow seamlessly.

Global story (The Noah’s Ark)

This is an artist’s imagination of an ancient civilization, Noah retrieving each of earth’s creations and ensuring their survival till posterity. This is Gupta’s way of saying how we should save ourselves from the wrath of nature and not tamper with it.

life Saviors (The beehive garden)

“Bees are a very important chain of our eco system; if they die, then the entire eco system collapses. This beehive garden represents India’s younger demographic. I have used chillums here to signify drug abuse which is eating into our future human resource,” adds Gupta.

January 29, 2017 | Millennium Post | Excavated Museum at the Mall | Millennium Post explores why this solo public art project by any artist is a solo biennale in itself.

Manav Gupta does it again! A list of many firsts. He is truly a maverick genius – no wonder the thinker and the visionary is hailed by critics as one of the most erudite and versatile contemporary artists today. After a hundred thousand footfalls at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi a year ago at his Ganga waterfront; and taking it across the Mississippi and the Hudson in USA last year as part of his Global Public Art Project on sustainbility connecting rivers of the world, he has created an entire ‘excavated museum’ at the DLF Mall of India at Sector 18, Noida till February 18 with a suite of five mega environmental art installations that punctuate different spaces in the Mall.

Former Expert Committee Member of Republic Day celebrations, first artist-in-residence at the Rashtrapati Bhawan invited personally by Dr Abdul Kalam, only artist to be invited by Environment Ministry to create one-minute-films on climate change, Manav is listed by Financial Times among ten contemporary Indian artists whose works would fetch good returns. The unique concept of environmental art in the Museum gets deeper with his underlying philosophy behind this series. He says, “Water and all five elements of nature are our source of sustainance. Ancient civilizations from India to the world over respected and understood this sanctity.While they drew nourishment from the great rivers. Be it our sacred Ganga or the Mississippi. As we grow, its time, we excavate the ancient philosophy of sustainable living. And we are all clay. Dust to dust. My art seeks to submit to this paradigm. Hence excavations in hymns of clay.”

As a part of his outreach programme of evolving, site specific and dynamic multiple edition solo public art projects across the world he deploys the quintessentially Indian potter’s produce of clay objects such as the earthen lamps (“diyas”), local cigar (“chilam”), earthen cups (“kullar”) to transform their individual identity into metaphors and idioms of sustainability, context, perception and treatment as he conceptualizes and creates large scale avant-garde works; using the rural Indian pottery meant for everyday use, in mass numbers, he deconstructs their age old existence as units to make them lend themselves to another form, be it in a Duchamp like inverted concept or simply rendering them formless. Some of his works include:

The River Waterfront
A site-specific installation with the invention of deploying earthen lamps and chilams as an iteration of their metaphors to form the lyrical formlessness of Time along the flow of the river. The multidimensional sensuousness of strands of rain pouring down against a waterfront is thought provoking as a poetic device executed with dramatic presence. Using the earthen lamp as a metaphor, Manav explores issues of environment consciousness. Given today’s world of current complex issues of treatment and perception of women as well as earth (referred to as mother earth in many quarters of Indian spirituality) the artist draws a cross spectrum reference of eroding human values using Ganga as the idiom.

The Beehive Garden project
Bees are an obvious or not so obvious link in the evolution chain and our sustainability. This global beehive garden project is an environmental statement by the artist about biodiversity and its crucial linkages to sustainable development. Manav’s art has always sought to play a bigger role than itself, in creating greater awareness on environemnt. And it reaches our senses and homes as a captivating reminder with its innovative deploying of “chilams” (earthen rural cigars) and “kullars” earthen cups to create beehives that can occupy every garden and home that keep acting as a gentle creative reminder to us each day to stop a while… and while doing what we are doing, try and add a drop in the ocean in the preservation of bees and biodiversity.

Meet me by the riverside –The bed
Love is what makes the world go around. The artist makes an intimate statement of love through the use of the male and female idioms of existence and how fragile love can be and yet so ethereal. Another dimension of sustainable development. With the river bed of earthen lamps and earthen cups, a stream seems to emerge from somewhere deep within and flow seemlessly pouring over. The bed is symbolic of history, of love and of a certain hope that the statement ‘meet me by the riverside..’ evokes. Called the ‘excavations in hymns of clay,’ this is the premiere of his 2017 edition that also happens to celebrate the twentieth year since his first solo at the Birla Academy of Fine Arts inaugurated by three prominent figures from Kolkata.

July 19, 2018 | The Statesman | A wealth of meaning | Aruna Bhowmik

A spectacular installation work at IGNCA uses clay pottery to depict all the natural elements. A review by Aruna Bhowmick Sharp, sensitive and organized as an individual and as an artist, ‘Manav Gupta has over the year created unusual and striking work of art that are as soul stirring as meaningful. Over the past few years, he has honed his ideas evolving as an environment-oriented artist with a difference. Using humble clay pottery, the earthen lamp or Diya and chillum or the local smoker’s pipe. Manav has created the most spectacular installation work to denote the elements with special reference to the Ganga. Using just these basic utility earthen pieces, he creates the cascading water of the mighty river reminder of its even mightier abuse and misuse.

Currently showing on the vast lawns of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for arts (IGNCA) the show is located over adjacent sites. An -Ode to Ganga – Waterfront has special reference as An Ode to Matighar, intelligently making an ironic statement on the Ganga by embracing the closed and abandoned Matighar itself, earlier declared by authorities as “unsafe.” At a short internally commutable distance, facing the new building of IGNCA. On Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road, are five other such installations spread over the lawns as Arth ~ Art for Earth (The Excavated Museum of Clay). Flood lights are an inherent component of the art works.

“arth” in Devanagari or Hindi implies “meaning’ as well as “wealth”, in this con- text meaning the five elements in relation to our existence on this planet. Today’s perception and treatment both of the earth and of women, both referred to as “mother” in many quarters of Indian spirituality, are contradictory and hypocritical, venerated on one occasion and sullied on all others. This polluting, the shrinking of water and its sources, the resultant climate change, have concerned this artist for several years.

As one pierces the darkness of the gardens becomes behind the Featuring a terracotta assembly as bed, and mannequins man and woman, the contention here is that life begins and ends from the bed. We are incepted here, and we leave the world from here.

In the backdrop we see the array of chillum strung on fine yarn, lit up to sparkle like rain to nurture the Arjuna and Neem trees. Nestling among the tree trunks are the hives of The Beehive Garden. Bees are an obvious or not so obvious linking the evolution chain and our sustainability. This global beehive garden project is an environmental statement about biodiversity and its crucial linkages to sustainable development. It is for us then, to try and add a drop in the ocean in the preservation of bees and biodiversity.

Noah’s Ark symbolises the saving of the world. In the “cycle of creation, un-creation and re-creation, the ark plays a pivotal role”. And in that effort is the neuter-gendered individual seen “rowing” the boat of all existing life on earth against the doom of self-destruction. The Time Machine, placed atop the stairs to the main entrance, is a set of three hour glasses composed of diyas, here implying cups or receptacles, together composing the large cups of the hourglass, to receive and disperse the sand within it. The sand here implies Time, Life and, in course of it, what we return to the earth after our abundant intake. “In its cur- rent avatar, the Time Machine is a tryptic espousing the sound of “OM” as “AUM” the three notes of the sound that crated the universe and reverberate in it.”

The installations are spectacular. Motivated by clear-headed noble ideas and created with great finesse and good taste they become magnificent. The thing to remember is that terracotta is not soluble or destroyable even with its humble origins. A lot of world civilisational history has been unearthed and dated from buried terracotta findings. So only time can tell how eco-friendly or environ- mentally-sustainable it really is.

Showing through 22 October, the show has to be approached from the Janpath Gate. Best time to visit: after sundown. Open till 9 p.m.

Jan 25, 2017 | Times Of India | E Times | Clay lamps and kulhads turn Noida mall into an art museum

By Abhimanyu Mathur
Jan 25, 2017, 01:00 IST

Clay lamps and kulhads turn Noida mall into an art museum.

Jacqueline Lundquist (L), wife of the former US ambassador, lights a diya with Manav Gupta

It’s not every day that the interiors of a mall turn into an art museum, which is why the clay installations at DLF Mall of
India unveiled this past week drew quite a few curious glances from the shoppers. Titled ‘Excavations in Hymns of Clay’, the project saw artist Manav Gupta create art installations with clay lamps, kulhads, and chillums to form a one-of-its kind travelling museum in the mall. One of the installations in the shape of an hourglass in the Noida mall (BCCL/ Lokesh Kashyap)
The theme of the installations was rivers of the world. Manav said, “This is unique because it’s a travelling museum. These installations will travel from one place to another, culminating at an actual museum. The idea behind a travelling museum is making it accessible to maximum people.”

(L-R) Manav Gupta, Pushpa Bector, Rajan Swaroop (BCCL/ Lokesh Kashyap)

The project was unveiled by the artist along with senior officials from the mall in the presence of art lovers from NCR. Pushpa Bector, head – premium malls, DLF, said, “There hasn’t been a great history of public art projects in the NCR, but of late that has changed, which is a welcome sign. What I particularly liked about this one is that it is in a modern mall, a place where you wouldn’t expect an art installation. We are trying to make art accessible to everyone.” The
installations will be displayed in the mall till February 18, and the launch will be followed by weekend events like morning meditations, as well as dance and music collaboration

Mar 2, 2017 | Times of India | Times News Network | Clay installation at Noida mall gets an extended display

By Niharika Lal
TNN | Mar 2, 2017, 15:00 IST

Clay installation at Noida mall gets an extended display.

Noida is not quite there yet in terms of public art display, in comparison to Delhi and Gurgaon, but efforts are being made to give prominence to display of art in the city. A mall in Sector 18 had put up artist Manav Gupta’s installations made of clay, which were supposed to be on display for a limited period. But the mall authority decided to extend the period of display because of popular demand. They did host a concluding ceremony, though, with dancer Shivani Varma performing at the event. The exhibition will be on till the first week of March.

The travelling museum, called ‘Excavations In Hymns Of Clay’ is a first-of-its- kind concept of a solo project on environmental art. Manav told us, “Art doesn’t belong to galleries only, it belongs to people, and so, art should be present wherever people are. Malls get footfalls of more than thousands of people every day, and so, if exhibitions are set up in such public places, more people get to see them. Now, as the exhibition has been extended till the next month more visitors will get to see it.”


Manav Gupta

The visitors at the mall told us that they were quite impressed with the initiative. Arpana Bishnoi, who lives in Sector 22 and was at the mall, told us, “I am glad to see that art is making its way even to the malls. In Delhi, I have seen galleries and installments, but in Noida, this is a new thing. After I saw it, I returned with my granddaughter to show her the art. This is a welcome change. We hope other malls will also follow.

February 14, 2017 | Life and More | Excavations in Hymns of Clay | Saurabh Tankha

If you haven’t been to DLF Mall of India in Noida’s Sector 18 off late, it’s time you visited it now.
Why? Because celebrated artist Manav Gupta has set up a one-of-its kind travelling museum at this mall with his art installations made up of clay lamps, kulhads and chillums. Mind you, it is not every day that the interiors of a mall turn into an art museum. Excavations in Hymns of Clay consists of five mega art installations created by Manav, located at different vantage points in the mall, but these will remain there only till Feb 18. So, you don’t have much time on you.

 

The five installations are titled The River Waterfront, Noah’s Arc, The Time Machine, The Beehive Garden Project and Meet Me By The Riverside, and believe me each one of these installations is increasingly beautiful than the others. It’s really difficult pinpointing whether The River Waterfront is breathtaking or it is the Noah’s Arc that steals the show; whether it is The Time Machine that enthrals you or The Beehive Garden that astounds you with its intricacy; Or is it the Meet Me By The River Side that takes the cake! “The idea behind a travelling museum is to make art accessible to as many common people as is possible,” says Manav.

 

Manav is truly one of the best among his ilk. I have been following his works for over a decade now, and every time he has surprised me with his vision and thought.

 

Last year, Manav set up the Ganga Waterfront at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi, again with clay lamps, chillums and kulhads. He then took it to Mississippi and the Hudson in USA as part of the Global Public Art Project on sustainability, connecting rivers of the world 

“Water and all the five elements of nature are our source of sustenance. Ancient civilizations all over the world respected and understood this sanctity. We have always drawn nourishment from rivers and we are made of clay. So, I feel it’s time we excavate the ancient philosophy of sustainable living. My art seeks to submit to this paradigm,” says Manav, explaining his Excavations in Hymns of Clay.

Manav Gupta at his musing best. Forever challenging his comfort zone even in the physical world, Gupta has created another work of art to marvel at.

Blouin Art Info

Flowing across the architecture en masse, pottery poured over the steps, embracing the staircase like water.

Forecast Public Art

Taking art beyond boundaries - Termed 'maverick genius' by critics, artist Manav Gupta uses art as a medium to spread the message of water conservation and sustainable living.

India Perspectives, Ministry of External Affairs Magazine, Government of India

Rain, the Ganga Waterfront along Time Machine

USA | Ganga to Missisippi

Research Talks Lectures, Dialogues
at Forecast Public Art,
Minneapolis College of Art & Design.

The Ganga Waterfront along Time Machine
India Habitat Centre, New Delhi


Engagement with space and architecture

2015-2016 | Bibliographic Index

May June 2016 | India Perspectives | MEA MAGAZINE, GOI Taking art beyond boundaries | Maverick Genius.

June 30, 2016 The Hindu  “Khorshed Deboo ,  Breaking The Mould” – artist Manav Gupta articulates how objects of clay can be adapted to address environmental urgencies.

June 30, 2017 | INVITATION | PRINCE OF WALES MUSEUM | Museum Society of Bombay and Prince of Wales Museum invitation lecture, ‘Excavations in Hymns of Clay’ takes place today at the CSMVS auditorium, Fort, at 6 p.m.

July 06, 2016 | Indian Diplomacy Twitter Web India | MEA | Ambassador Of India’s Soft Power.

July 07, 2016 | The Times 24 | KS Rao & Team | Ambassador Of India’s Soft Policy Manav Gupta has showcased Indian Pottery.

August 10th, 2016 | Hi Blitz | Volume 14 | Issue 9 | Cover Feature | Manav Gupta- A President’s Artist On the Waterfront.

Minneapolis College of Art and Design, President’s Lecture Series : Manav Gupta , November 12, 2015

BLOUIN ARTINFO, Manav Gupta at his musing best , April 14, 2015

Hindustan Times, Eco-friendly: Art goes from earth to earth, April 10, 2015

Matters of Art, Exploring the Holy Ganges in Clay, March 15, 2015

The Pioneer, Message in Clay, December 23rd, 2015

The Indian Panorama, From Ganga to Mississippi , January, 2016

August 4th, 2016  Architecture Update Volume10 | Issue 7 | Allegoric Innovations | Manav Gupta | Installation Art – Manav Gupta has reinvented the language of clay with true originaility of thought.

October 23, 2016 | NAWRAS  Mohona Banerjee  “Enigmatic and thoughtful with a wry sense of humour, Manav Gupta is a prolific artist who is set on deconstructing art perception. His enthusiasm and refined conception of art makes it evident why he is one of the leading contemporary authorities in the art-world. 

Public Art Review, Manav Gupta repurposes local pottery, Issue 53 : Leading the Way | Fall/Winter, 2015.

Forecast Public Art, Weaving spirituality and environmentalism in public art, November 11th, 2015.

Outlook, Excavations in hymns of clay, June 1st, 2015.

Millennium Post, Exquisitely etched in clay, April 21st, 2015.

The Statesman, River of ClayApril 2, 2015.

Deccan Herald, Magnificent Public Art Installation, April 2015

Museum Society of Bombay and Prince of Wales Museum invitation - Lecture: 'Excavations in Hymns of Clay': Manav Gupta

Museum Society of Bombay and Prince of Wales Museum invitation lecture: 'Excavations in Hymns of Clay' by Manav Gupta takes place today at the CSMVS auditorium, Fort, at 6 p.m, Thursday, 30th June, 2016

President's Lecture Series: Manav Gupta

The President’s Lecture, Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Minnesota, USA | November 12th, 2015

He’s been called the “maverick genius” by his critics. According to insiders, Manav Gupta is piped to be the next big thing in international art. One of India’s most erudite and versatile contemporary artists, Manav Gupta has reinvented the language of clay by infusing true originality of thought and treatment in the humble produce of the potters wheel. With works sold by Christie’s, Bonham’s, Philip de Pury and in several private, corporate, and public collections, he is widely exhibited around the globe. Recently Manav executed perhaps the two biggest solo commissioned artworks originating from India in the past few years: a world-record, five-floor, ten-thousand-square-foot mega mural at the corporate giant Airtel’s headquarters during which he invited thousands of employees to come and experience painting with him; and an Indo-Bhutan friendship mural of twenty-foot-high canvases in Bhutan. His passion for public art is long standing—a striving of the thought and belief that embraces and explores the juxtaposition and dichotomy of the universality with the exclusively isolated, the iconic and iconoclastic.

April 14, 2015 | Blouin Art Info | Is It Mere Water Or Holy River Ganga?

BY HEMANI BHANDARI

Ganga Water Project Along The Time Machine by Manav Gupta
(India Habitat Centre)

“Sacred,

If you believe

I lie wrapped in a heap of nothingness

Unsung, Unlit, Unheard

Till the end of time.”

That’s Manav Gupta at his musing best. Forever challenging his comfort zone even in the physical world, Gupta has created another work of art to marvel at. Thousands of earthen lamps are placed inverted along several rows and chillums hang from the wall down the columns to create an illusion of the Ganga waterfront. When dusk falls and the area is lit up, one can almost hear the sound of the waves.

Titled “Rain, the Ganga Waterfront Along The Time Machine” from the series “Excavation in Hymns of Clay”, the installation represents a waterfall wherein Gupta has used the Ganga, the revered river in India, as the idiom and earthen lamps and chillums as metaphors to draw home the point: “If you consider me sacred, I am pure, else mere water, it flows.” Gupta says it’s the maverick inside him that inspired the project. The installation is on view at the Plaza steps at the India Habitat Centre where people can engage with it, understand it and absorb its calm.

The most striking thing about the installation is the optical illusion that Gupta has succeeded in creating with the earthen lamps and hanging chillums. The architectural engagement of the pottery with the walls where it is placed transforms the regular venue into a riparian landscape. “The architectural engagement of art with space and construction is something which is a matter of concern for me and is very important for art to belong there,” says Gupta. According to the artist, the earthen lamp and chillums have a negligible existence and are discarded once used, and so is the case with the Ganga and other natural resources that mankind uses and discards with alarming nonchalance.

Not only do the lamps and chillums feed the need of metaphors but also provide the surface needed to portray a river without a shore, especially when placed inverted. “Also, it’s a poor potter’s produce which is quintessentially Indian and in terms of micro-finance situation, I am trying to rehabilitate them as I buy in huge numbers. It’s deeply satisfying,” shares Gupta.

God lies in details and it holds true for Gupta’s huge art installation as well. As is the case with a real waterfront, ripples and waves are discernible even in the installation as the pottery has been placed smartly, densely at certain places to give the right effect. Alongside lie two potted plants, one barren and the other in bloom, to reflect on the power of water.

The artist, who remembers the first box of crayons that he got at the age of one year, has experimented with almost all forms of media, ranging from installations to site-specific architectural spaces, the conceptual to multimedia, canvas to sculptures. All, however, are bound together by the constants of “light, color, spontaneity and nature,” he says.

The mega mural of 10,000 sq. ft at the Airtel Centre, Delhi and the 20-feet high Bhutan friendship mural in the mountain country are some of the artist’s most acclaimed creations. “I haven’t followed the usual route in my art career,” says Gupta, who was a marketing professional with a multinational company before he turned to art completely. “And I am glad I didn’t take the usual route because it lead me to where I am today,” he adds. Born and brought up in Kolkata, Gupta joined the Academy of Fine Arts to pursue his interest during school and college, and he made his art, which then comprised only paintings, public with his first show in 1996 in the open space of the Birla Academy. Talking about his figurative milestones, Gupta says the moment when he could explore light and color in nature was the time when his “soul felt at peace”. It was fulfilling when people across the globe in the US, Europe and Asia could relate to his art and yet recognised it as Indian as well as contemporary.

Nature has been his ultimate inspiration as one can see in his paintings and other works of art. He has learnt from his guru Vasant Pandit that nature is the soul of art. “For me, it’s the soul of everything,” he says. Gupta has been propagating the importance of environment since he began painting. “I even asked people to paint a sapling on canvas during one of my exhibitions.” All one needs to do is to remain conscious of the environment while doing what they are doing, he advocates.

Public art projects are growing in the country in order to engage the common man with art and this has also been one of the motives of the artist. The Ganga Water Project is a step in that direction. “Everyone across the globe appreciates public art and we must pursue it as we enjoy a rich cultural rooting. The supposed common man understands art and we must not assume they won’t if exposed to it,” says Gupta.

“Ganga Water Project Along The Time Machine” is on view at Plaza Steps, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi, till April 20

Sep 1, 2015 | Forecast Public Art | Public Art Review issue 53 - 2015 (fall/winter) | RITUAL RIVER | Repurposing local pottery to showcase environmental issues

For his work Rain, the Ganga Waterfront along the Time Machine, Indian artist Manav Gupta reused thousands of earthen cups. The installation appeared on three continents in 2016. Photo courtesy the artist.

Manav Gupta at his installation, Rain, the Ganga Waterfront along the Time Machine. Photo courtesy the artist.

Detail from Manav Gupta’s Rain, the Ganga Waterfront along the Time Machine. Photo courtesy the artist.

In “Rain, the Ganga Waterfront along Time Machine,” a river of clay objects streamed across the steps of the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi in early 2015. Previously installed in South Africa, the latest in Manav Gupta’s Excavations in Hymns of Clay series calls attention to the use of global resources, makes a nod to spirituality, and references the relentless power of water. The installation is slated to appear in the U.S., Europe, and Southeast Asia in 2016.

Flowing across the architecture en masse, pottery poured over the steps, embracing the staircase like water and, according to Gupta, “denoting the symbolism of the passage of time as the river flows.” The pottery also offers a metaphor about how we use resources like water: “Taken for granted. Anointed when needed. Only revered when in use,” says Gupta. “And after its purpose is served, discarded and thrown and another one bought to serve the desires of the soul yet another day.”

A poet, painter, and filmmaker as well as an installation artist, Gupta says the Time Machine in the title recalls “the mechanized lives we lead without respecting sustainable living and resources.”
Gupta draws attention to resource use by choosing as his raw material diyas (earthen lamps), chilam (clay pipes), and kullar (earthen cups). Purchased from poor potters at roadside stands, then used for prayer, these vessels have historically been used only once. According to the artist, the humble cups gain meaning through worship and to this day are still discarded after use, “to be immersed in the Ganga.”

While a dip in the sacred Ganga is still seen as a purifier of sins, a river of disposable clay vessels speaks to how we choose to use (and sometimes misuse) the earth for our own purposes.

Forecast Public Art hosted a special event with artist Manav Gupta on November 11, 2015. Manav spoke about his career as an international artist, specifically his work “Excavations in Hymns of Clay. ”Excavations in Hymns of Clay” that has been described as a “suite of environmental art installations where the artist deploys the quintessentially Indian potter’s produce of clay objects such as the earthen lamps (“diyas”), local cigar (“chilam”), earthen cups (“kullar”) and transforms their individual identity into metaphors and idioms of sustainability, context, perception and treatment as he conceptualizes and creates large scale avant-garde installations. “A poet, painter, and filmmaker as well as an installation artist, Manav invited attendees to walk through his history as an artist and spoke more specifically to his current series – Excavations in Hymns of Clay – a major undertaking that he plans to bring around the world. His work seamlessly weaves spirituality, tradition and environmentalism.

Jan 22, 2016 | The Indian Panorama | Ganga to Mississippi: Eminent artist Manav Gupta’s Art Project connects USA with India

A first of its kind Indo – US project is being initiated by one of India‘s top ten eminent contemporary artists, Manav Gupta, that builds multiple linkages at different venues in the USA and India between the countries and the people via the great and sacred rivers of India and the USA and their waters, through art. The global project engages different other art forms as well as people from all walks of life, with the river of clay waterfront, created with the quintessentially Indian potters produce, engaging with cutting edge installations and signature paintings, with America’s people.

Connecting the River Ganga with the River Mississippi, through the signature ‘umbilical cords series’ paintings that have been auctioned by Christie’s, Bonhams’ ,Philip de Pury and by deploying the humble Indian potter’s produce to form avant garde cutting edge installations series “excavations in hymns of clay”, the project stands to serve as an excellent tool to spread awareness on earth’s precious resources specially water and sustainable living through “healing of the rivers” with an engagement of people with a ‘little of their heart, soul and mind space‘ ;besides building bridges between India and USA through the unique first of its kind conceptualization and idea of ‘Ganga to Mississippi” that it brings with itas the humble contribution of the artist culminating from the two decades of his experience of taking art beyond art to seek consciousness on environmental issues through his paintings, Public art, collaborative, performance and may other art initiatives beyond boundaries between nations and beyond just himself.It strives to reach new heights in a first of its kind initiative ever as an engagement with the Mississippi and the people of the land by the Indian artist via dialogues through art and literature, dance, music, poetry, theatre in a language that is contemporary, a vocabulary that’s global, art that’s avant garde as well as first of its kind in deploying Indian pottery to create cutting edge large scale art and a concept that’s as unique as its universal.With the New York Consul General of India organizing a grand preview of the project exhibition at the Consulate, the artist is working hard towards a run up to World Earth Day on 22nd of April 2016 in New York followed by multiple chapters of the project shaping up at multiple venues in different cities.

After a record turnout of a hundred thousand footfalls at the Global India Preview of the Project at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, Gupta, who has been sought after for his depth of color light and composition in his paintings, was invited to deliver the prestigious President’s lecture at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and the Forecast talk on Public Art by the two leading international organizations in the U.S. last month for disseminating his Global Public Art Project on sustainability that brings people of the two nations together in his upcoming Travelling Trilogy IV, USA edition.Also, the artist, who has been specially pre-commissioned last October to create a special suite of works from his signature series umbilical cords of earth, water on the theme by a US based collector couple, has started his on-sites research here , on an invitation by them for a long leg of this tour for absorbing insights, taking notes and sketches on how the cities along some of the rivers of America like the Mississippi to the Hudson and the East River respond to its waters and to look at sites of engagement where he would create dialogues on the above theme through his public art. He is getting ready for a seminal suite of works that he would bring to the US, April 2016 onwards, marking the World Earth Day.

June 30, 2016 | The Hindu | Breaking The Mould

By Khorshed Deboo

Caption: Manav Gupta says pottery indirectly tells us how humankind often misuses natural resources.

Article: In German-Swiss poet and novelist Hermann Hesse’s prolific book Siddhartha (1922), the potter’s wheel takes the form of a profound metaphor: as the wheel sculpts clay into art, it allegorically moulds the protagonist’s life into a spiritual journey.

One can possibly extend this metaphor to Delhi-based artist Manav Gupta’s series of contemporary environmental installation works titled Excavations in Hymns of Clay. While a precursor to the installation was displayed at Pretoria’s National Museum in 2012, Delhi saw ‘Rain, the Ganga Waterfront Along the Time Machine’, the maiden work from the series, last year.

During the first quarter of 2015, the plaza steps of the India Habitat Centre in the capital witnessed an overwhelming bustle of people, a footfall of almost a hundred thousand. Here is what intrigued onlookers were gazing at: a torrent of chillums (clay pipes used for smoking intoxicants) woven together in billowing cascades along the brick walls, akin to a waterfall flowing ad infinitum; and thousands of diyas (earthen lamps) and kulhads (earthen cups) branching out into stacked clusters along the steps, almost representing the kinetic flow of tributaries of a river: an arrangement that generates constantly shifting perspectives.

Gupta says, “The river is the basic archetype of our living environment. Over the ages, rivers have nurtured civilisations across the world.” While the gargantuan, concept-driven work, devoid of any epigraph, is an idiom for the Ganga, it transcends geographies and is ascribed to a larger global context. According to him, the clay objects ‘denote the symbolism of the passage of time as the river flows’. The pottery indirectly tells us how humankind often misuses natural resources. Frequently sold in heaps along the road, these commonplace clay objects suddenly become sacrosanct when placed at the altar during religious ceremonies, but are eventually discarded into the Ganga in the guise of offerings. For his installation, Gupta orders the earthenware in large numbers from the local communities of potters scattered across Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, and in doing so, helps the potters to sustain themselves thorough a model of micro-finance.

As part of the Global Public Art and Museum Project for Sustainability and Water, Gupta will deliver a lecture at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya (CSMVS), shedding light on the aforementioned riparian terrain of the installation and how he metaphorically repurposes clay objects in his pursuit of environmental sustainability.

Gupta’s practice straddles painting, poetry, filmmaking and creating installation pieces. “The act of painting,” says Gupta, “was always a solitary one for me. However, by taking the process to public spaces, I have broken the mould of engaging in painting all by myself.”

During 2010-2011, Gupta initiated the creation of a massive, almost theatrical, mural spanning 11,500 sq. ft. at the headquarters of a telecom company in Delhi. “I was probably being watched by around 3,500 curious corporate employees. It then struck me to inviteall of them to paint as well. As much as I think solitary painting is nirvanaic, the experience of getting together so many hands over the subsequent three months became extremely fulfilling for me,” he shares.

The shaping of his artistic sensibilities can perhaps be attributed to his childhood in Calcutta. He grew up in the lap of nature, surrounded by swathes of greenery. “The National Library campus was close by, and so were the horticultural gardens. My foray into art began with sketching the barks of trees,” recalls Gupta.

Gupta’s ethos is sensitive to the space each of his works inhabit. For instance, the placement of each installation is site-specific. “The work is created and arranged as organically as possible, so as to embrace the existing architecture of the space and not intrude into it. The process of assembling the clay objects is never rigid, but fluid and flexible,” he elucidates.

The participation of the viewing public is now of utmost importance to Gupta. “It is like a dialogue or conversation that happens at the waterfront,” he says, in the context of the installation. “I find it deeply engaging and immersive when people willingly participate in my work. We tend to undermine the intelligence of the common man but have we exposed him to quality public art at all?” he adds contentiously.

However, it is his interaction with students that he feels humbled by. “While dealing with young minds, I am constantly learning. It is a process of exposing one’s art and imbibing and experiencing their many responses,” he says.

For Gupta, Excavations in Hymns of Clay is an ongoing, evolving series. “The ultimate idea is to have some installations housed permanently within a soon-to-be-developed museum space, and a few which will travel to cities across the globe, in order to engage with larger, more diverse audiences,” he reveals. According to him, art has several roles to play, the potential of which hasn’t been explored fully so far. “Art has the capability to add value to a space, to enhance and mould a space,” he encapsulates.

Excavations in Hymns of Clay takes place today at the CSMVS auditorium, Fort, at 6 p.m. Entry is free. The author is a freelance writer

While dealing with young minds, I am constantly learning. It is a process of exposing one’s art and imbibing and experiencing their many responses

Gupta’s practice straddles painting, poetry, filmmaking and creating installation pieces

Feb 09, 2016 | C file daily | Manav Gupta: “Excavations in Hymns of Clay” demands Environmental Consciousness

Manav Gupta (b. 1967 in Kolkata, India) is an artist whose installations, performances and “mega-murals” often lead him into topics such as ecosystems, climate change and sustainable development. His biography states that global warming, man’s interference with nature and man’s disregard for environmental consciousness impact his work:Just as his artist’s statement highlights “As I scrape the bottom of the soul for some ingredients the only way I can explain to myself, about what it all is, is to believe that in some past life (if there is one), I belonged to the rainforests. The mantra there, for survival, is to submit to the natural forces, bow before it, respect its ways, learn and grow.

One of his larger pieces of particular interest to ceramics lovers, is the pottery/architecture installation Excavations in Hymns of Clay. We’re reproducing portions of his artist statement on this particular work here, accompanied by photographs. From the artist:Excavations in Hymns of Clay is a suite of environmental art installations by Manav Gupta where the artist deploys the quintessentially Indian potter’s produce of clay objects such as the earthen lamps (“diyas”), local cigar (“chilam”), earthen cups (“kullar”) and transforms their individual identity into metaphors and idioms of sustainability, context, perception and treatment as he conceptualizes and creates large scale avant-garde installations…

 …Manav explores the essence of the vedic practices to subtly bring to light the repository of solutions that the ancient way of life could offer in today’s context of sustainable development and current issues around rivers like the Ganga…Using the earthen lamp as a metaphor, Manav explores issues of environmental consciousness. We recognise and respect earth only when we use its resources for our use without reverence. Having been a part of the religious rituals many years and having grown up and lived this practice in India for years this whole symbolic circle of life has deeply affected the artist to use earthen lamps diyas as a metaphor to explore and raise questions on environmental consciousness and about the very glaring issue of how perception and context interplay each other. How men and objects are made to traverse responses and the destiny of reactions based on usage, perception, context and situation.The earthen lamp is woven in the cultural-religious fabric of India from time immemorial. This humble small clay bowl called the diya is shaped by poor potters who keep them in large numbers by the road side in heaps for selling. Sometimes beside garbage dumps or beside sewage drains, they have a nondescript existence until the time they are bought home by people. Once home, only at the time of worship, they are used as a tool at the altar. Then something dramatic happens. The same humble small bowl of clay that had no meaning, no significance or existence in the human psyche suddenly turns into the medium of conveying the desires of the soul. Sacred as soon as it is placed at the altar. Priests say you do not need to purify these mud bowls by sprinkling it with the holy water of the Ganges because it is made of earth and is pure. Oil is poured in it. A wicker lit. And it assumes the status of the Holy Grail, carrying one‘s prayers of the soul to the Gods and our spirit awakens. Once the prayer ends, the earthen lamp is discarded again to be immersed in the Ganges. Taken for granted. Anointed when needed. Only revered when in use. And after its purpose is served, discarded and thrown and another one bought to serve the desires of the soul yet another day. Its life is strange as the way of the world and the circle of life. Like the unsung hymns of clay

The artist has also taken his analogy from the Ganges. The sacred river of India has dedications that have always poured on it in many ways… Given today’s world of current complex issues of treatment and perception of women as well as earth (referred to as mother earth in many quarters of Indian spirituality), the artist draws a cross spectrum reference of eroding human values.The pollution of the rivers, the shrinking of water and its availability and such other climate change issues have been in the artist’s ethos of work since beginning.

Sacred.

if you believe,
I lie
wrapped
in a heap
of nothingness.

Unsung,
unlit,
unheard.
Till the end of time.

At an altar
sometimes,
flames peep out
of my earthen palms.
An iridescent arch
woven by moonbeams.

And your soul
sings your desires.

manav

August, 2015 | Air Vistara | The Maverick Genius

By Aaditi Isaac

At age one, Manav Gupta was gifted crayons and a drawing book by a master artist. And the boy was glued. His creative talent would one day take him places but not in a linear journey.

“I did not know then that Vasant Pandit would became my guru. As I grew up, he introduced me to the forests, light and the soul of art,“ says Gupta. Along with school and college study, he trained under Rathin Maitra at the Academy of Fine Arts who taught him the “grammar of art.“…

In 1996, Gupta held his first solo exhibition in Kolkata. From then on, there was no stopping him. Over the years, whether it was creating five-floor murals or one minute films or performance art live on stage or talking rivers and rainforests, Gupta experimented and innovated as he exhibited his work across the globe, including US, UK, South Africa, Germany, Middle East, among others. He moved from canvas to installation art because he wanted to evolve his own unique language to communicate his essence as an artist. In the potter’s produce, he found the quintessentially Indian spiritual context that he grew up with and he was eager to innovate it to engage with the public to raise awareness about the environment.

2015 | Times of India | Education Times | Taking art to the Masses

By Aaditi Isaac

At age one, Manav Gupta was gifted crayons and a drawing book by a master artist. And the boy was glued. His creative talent would one day take him places but not in a linear journey.

“I did not know then that Vasant Pandit would became my guru. As I grew up, he introduced me to the forests, light and the soul of art,“ says Gupta. Along with school and college study, he trained under Rathin Maitra at the Academy of Fine Arts who taught him the “grammar of art.“…

In 1996, Gupta held his first solo exhibition in Kolkata. From then on, there was no stopping him. Over the years, whether it was creating five-floor murals or one minute films or performance art live on stage or talking rivers and rainforests, Gupta experimented and innovated as he exhibited his work across the globe, including US, UK, South Africa, Germany, Middle East, among others. He moved from canvas to installation art because he wanted to evolve his own unique language to communicate his essence as an artist. In the potter’s produce, he found the quintessentially Indian spiritual context that he grew up with and he was eager to innovate it to engage with the public to raise awareness about the environment.

May-June, 2016 | India Perspectives | Ministry of External Affairs MAGAZINE, Government of India | Taking art beyond boundaries - Maverick Genius

Taking art beyond boundaries

Termed ‘maverick genius’ by critics, artist Manav Gupta uses art as a medium to spread the message of water conservation and sustainable living. Freedom, a reflective term, is synonymous with artistic liberation and celebration of the soul. This holds true for Manav Gupta. The artist, a true patriot, began his art journey on India’s Independence Day almost two decades back. His path has been laden with all the essence the country carries as he embraces the principles of ancient Indian philosophy, way of life and scriptures through art.

His paintings and sculptures depicting the terrain and totems of the Bastar forests, his celebrated series on shoonya (zero) drawing inspiration from the ancient Indian philosophy of the universe, the sun and the moon, the typical jugalbandi between musicians, his installation called Time Machine made with kulhads (earthen cups) at Gurgaon and his public art installation, Rain, the Ganga Waterfront, hosted by India Habitat Centre (IHC) in New Delhi, are all testimony to creative art. Going beyond Manav’s installation, Rain, the Ganga Waterfront, was awe-inspiring as it used thousands of earthen lamps and chillums (clay pipes) to create an illusion of a waterfall.

It was an exemplary artwork as Manav attached his craft with sustainable development and called for attention to the use of global resources. His first-of- its-kind Indo-US public art project on sustainable living received critical acclaim. The 70’x65’x60′ installation, Rain, the Ganga Waterfront Along Time Machine at the IHC was celebrated by one and all. Moreover, the involvement of people from different walks of life in the project provided it a wider reach and visibility. Manav is most sought-after for depth of colour light and composition in his paintings and for innovations in art practices. Last year, he was invited to deliver the President’s lecture at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and for the forecast talk on public art by two leading international organisations in the US for disseminating the Indo- American edition of the Travelling International Public Art Project on Sustainable Development. The artist has been credited for re- utilising everyday objects of clay for The artist has been credited for re- utilising everyday objects of clay for large-scale public art in an attempt to transform local items and produce them on a global platform, a move that primarily stems from environmental consciousness. Manav is a true ambassador of India’s soft power, having been invited to the US, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East with solo exhibitions called Travelling Trilogy at Massachusetts, New York, Iowa, San Francisco, Berlin, London, Muscat, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town, besides major Indian cities in recent years. His series of art installations, Excavations in Hymns of Clay, and painting series, A Hundred and Eight, are quintessentially Indian as he continues to take up sustainable development and deploy the humble Indian potter’s produce to form avant garde cutting-edge installations. Using sustainable material for development and respecting water as a precious resource, reducing wastage and working on river banks are the obvious means for conservation. Kaleidoscope Manav’s works have transcended the constraints of any particular medium and permeated museums, galleries and corporate institutions. His paintings include two signature series, Large Canvases: Umbilical Cords of Earth and Contemporary Miniatures: Water Colours on Paper and his experiment with films was manifested into a one minute public service message a large which was commissioned by the Government of India. Think Tank Manav was a part of panel discussions during his installation, Rain, the Ganga Waterfront along Time Machine, as government and commerce industry leaders, environment and water experts, art veterans, and spiritual leaders discussed on water, earth’s resources and sustainability, and how art and spirituality connects people to contemplate and respond. Further, his concept of Mark Twain’s Mississippi Poetry Festival at Waterfront is another example of fine art. Manav is a true artist as his creations are an extension of his efforts to sensitise people towards nature.

August 10th, 2016 | Hi Blitz | Volume 14 | Issue 9 | Cover Feature | Manav Gupta- A President’s Artist | On the Waterfront.

Manav Gupta slips from the spoken word to painted brush strokes. He flows from country to country while crossing creative spaces and borders with his innovative art style.

He lays down what he sees through his paintings and his installations, breathing nature back into the life of the modern individual with two decades worth of art. Born to literati, Manav took to poetry at an early age. Often, he would create paintings for the book covers of his literati parents and several poets he came to know over time. He even made a few book-covers for IK Gujral (former prime minster of India) and Sheila Gujral. Such book covers intrigued the interest of the 11* President of India, Dr Kalam. It was on his request that Gupta translated his poem, A National Prayer, into a painting. The result of this collaboration impressed Dr Kalam and thus initiated a long and dear friendship.

Being the first artist in residence with the late former President, Dr Kalam, Gupta tells us about spending many an ambient evening composing together. “Every morning we used to take walks together talking about everything under the sun, science, politics, more of art and music. He used to play the Veena, so we used to sit at night, he used to play, and I used to paint or sketch.

 

Those used to be great weekend trysts with destiny. Somewhere along the way the artist was riveted by the power of clay lamps and it became the raison d’etre for his powerful installations series Excavations in Hymns of Clay.

In this avant-garde series he deconstructs kullars, chilums and diyas and uses them in his installations to portray rivers, rain and other forms of environmental art At his exhibit in Delhi’s Red Fort called the Waterfront he placed a few twigs upright in the flowing river of inverted diyas; in four months the twigs blossomed and it is his strong belief that the blossoming is the result of the power of thought.

He invited several children to play in the clay river made of diyas and on breaking a couple they immediately regretted destroying art. Gupta impresses upon us that we should feel the same about harming the environment as we do about artwork. He remarked how in South Africa people would sit by his Shrinking River exhibit and ponder, simply absorbing the silence. “Nature has a million answers. If one submits oneself to the form and the raw energy of the tree, one can see great poetry and lyricism in its intertwining branches and roots.”

His dedication to environmental issues prompted collaborations with the Ministry of Environment where he made one-minute films for them about ecosystems, climate change and sustainable development. His poetic paintings are a pleasure to behold. The Lyrics of Light, one of his signature series gives you a sense of honesty in his play with chiaroscuro. His works come in many shapes and sizes and forms.

August 4th, 2016 Architecture Update Volume 10 | Issue 7 | ALLEGORIC INNOVATIONS

Manav Gupta has reinvented the language of clay by infusing true originality of thought and treatment in the humble produce of the potter’s wheel deploying and transforming the readymade day objects of everyday partisan use in India like The earthen lamps, cups and chillam (Indian rural humble cigar) into sustainable development metaphors of large scale installations.

Manav Gupta’s art, facing both forwards and inwards, is a contemplation of natural communion. He puts the medium to fresh creative tasks; having a precise understanding of colour and form as the language with which nature communicates meanings and values. For him, colour is a function of sight, implying a sun-like quality in the eye. And he makes the medium he chooses, a non limiting possibility. In several private, corporate and public collections, he is listed by Financial Times as one of the ten contemporary artists from India whose works would fetch good returns. Widely exhibited around the globe, he has reinvented the language of clay in installations and Public Art, infusing true originality of thought and treatment in the humble produce of the potter’s wheel.

INSTALLATION 1: WATERFRONT

The river waterfront site specific installation uses the ambient architectural space to create itself as a river- an organic engaectuent of art with architecture and space to explore it in its unitcontext flowing out of the structure that could be made to look like mountain rocks. This art is made of more than a hundmil thousand earthen lamps and chillams. The artist transforms their individual identity into metaphors and idioms of sustainability, context, perception and treatment of the river Ganga in particular, but connecting globally, to rivers and waters of the world. Using the rural Indian pottery meant for everyday use, in mass numbers, lie deconstructs their age old existence as units to make them lend themselves to another form, be it. in a Duchamp like inverted concept or simply rendering thenm formless and juxtapose It with similar findings of his research project along other big rivers and their ancient cultures.

INSTALLATION 2: TIME MACHINE

With the first of its kind use of the potter’s produce of earthen cups to form the hourglass: the artist engages the audience with time and its ethereal and transient pa:.sage, Clay, a naked, earth Symhol of existence, resource and sustainability and the cup as the metaphor of time’s limitedness draws on to explore how they use their re ones The fragility of clay juxtaposed with the limitedness ot the ‘cup of time’ draw an engagement to one’s waste, perception, passage and interface with time and life itself in a rapidly mechanised, capitalistic and consumerist human interaction with Earth along one’s limited timelines of life. The introduction of light within, by the artist, celebrates the awakening of one’s consciousness and its potential of hope. `This sculpture – installation is philosophical and spiritual, teasing subtle nuances of humanintelligence and its emotional quotient on one plane, while at the same time, simple, elegant graceful and celebrating the public engagement with art itself – the exciting possibilities of the potters produce as evolved artistic practice made brilliantly simple by the artist for mass consumption.

INSTALLATION 3: BEEHIVES

Made with chillam’s, the beehives are a suite of site specific installations that look organic in their engagement with nature. The cluster of Beehives together can occupy a roof or wall or corner and can be adjusted in size and assortment to create a natural habitat.

INSTALLATION 4: NOAH’S ARK

The Noah’s ark denotes the rescue of the river. Made with the potter’s produce on an iron structure, the silhouette has an excavated charm of history that relates to Modern times and the need of the hour to save rivers.

October 23rd, 2016 | Nawras Magazine | Space Craft

By Mohonia Banerjee

 

Enigmatic and powerful with a wry sense of humour, Manav Gupta is a prolific artist who is set on deconstructing art perception.

 

A dynamic Indian artist who has successfully infused his works of art with a quiet evocative spirituality. Manav Gupta Is a force to be reckoned. A gentle, down-to-earth man with an engaging philosophical disposition. his natural creative zeal is the first thing that one notices about him.

 

His enthusiasm and refined conception of art makes it evident why he is one of the leading contemporary authorities in the art-world. Gupta’s love for scale, light, colour and space has resulted into unique pieces of art which demonstrate his passion for turning the traditional into avant-garde. From hobnobbing with musicians and constructing a 1500 sq. ft world-record. a five-floor mega mural at the office of a telecom giant to his magnum opus – the River waterfront at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi – Manav Gupta delights in diversity.

» Why the fascination towards light, colour and space?

 

My fascination stems from my understanding of perspective. I specifically studied perspective while was at Academy of Fine Arts. Kolkata. The fascination is wrapped with a lot of factors from my upbringing in Kolkata, my childhood and my deep abiding love for nature. Colour is the purest form of nature and that remains my original source of inspiration. Space is what takes you to another paradigm, a kaleidoscope of perspective which allows me to experiment with the micro-macro dimension which is the very essence of the universe And light means a lot more to me than mere packets of photons. Light is hope.

 

» How do you synthesise music, poetry, philosophy and painting?

 

It is a natural process. There is nothing contrived in their synthesis. Music and poetry share similarity with painting. It is a lot about scale and variations and both stem from nature. Nature is a living, breathing paradox. Sensual and yet pure. Music goes through my veins to create what I can through my pen or brushstroke. Philosophy likewise stems from nature and there can be no better philosopher to guide one’s sense of spirituality. When one accepts the magnitude or nature, one no longer needs to construct a synthesis

 

» Is there a difference in perception of mix media in India and abroad?

 

The purpose of art is to deconstruct to reconstruct. I don’t believe in pro- conceived notions Medium is not important. I do different media, all media. Mediums is means to an end. I have reworked everyday clay objects to a waterfront and in India, people were struck by the uniqueness of the ordinary. While in South Africa, the ones who don’t know about Indian earthen lamps viewed it from I an art-for-art’s-sake perspective Indian audience is open to change and respond enthusiastically to variations in art forms

 

» How does travelling affect your perception of art?

 

Traveling is very essential for shaping my perception of art. New places introduce different stimuli which are a prerogative in the field of art. Travel opens up your mind, challenges your beliefs.

 

» Is there a co-relation between your love for performing art and painting?

 

The heady spontaneous process OT performing in front of an audience is rejuvenating. Painting shuts out the mind the audience stays in the background till the canvas is complete while a musical or audio-visual performance is a direct dialogue with the audience The key is to enjoy yourself.

 

» What do you want people to take away from your exhibitions?

 

Art and audience is a symbiotic relationship. Art helps you arow and art grows on people. f you can achieve that dialogue with your audience. it is very satisfying as an artist. You are being vulnerable when you express your universe, but you cannot reach depth without that vulnerability which makes this entire experience so precious.

Opposite page: Artist Manav Gupta believes that medium in an art-form is means to an end and not the end itself.

Outlook Magazine | SUSTAINABLE SERENDIPITY | June, 2015

He’s been called a ‘maverick genius’ by his critics. Delhi’s own Manav Gupta has stunned the art world with his latest installation Rain, the Ganga Waterfront along Time Machine, using thousands of clay lamps and chillams lowing along the steps of the courtyard of the India Habitat Centre.’ “The humble clay bowl is taken for granted, much like the Ganga, says Gupta. The gigantic installation now travels to London, Des Moines, and San Francisco. Manav Gupta is pipped to be the next big thing in art, insiders say.

March 15, 2015 | Matters Of Art | EXPLORING THE HOLY GANGES IN CLAY

By Rajkumari Tankha

From his series Excavations of Hymns of Clay, renowned artist Manav Gupta brings to fore a beautiful public art project on sustainable development. On display at the Plaza Steps, India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, the installation – Rain, the Ganga Waterfront Along The Time Machine – depicts the flow of River Ganga from its origin at Gangotri, down to its tributaries in various Indian cities. The artist has used the architectural design of the building to depict the flow of the revered river, creating ripples and waves with diyas and chillums. 

Hymns of Clay is a spectacular piece de art, quintessentially Indian in thought and creation. In addition, for all those who care to take note, it sends across a strong message on sustainable development.  The use of diyas and chillums to depict the flow of the holy river has perhaps been done for the first time in the world. And the effect is picturesque indeed. That the artist is able to create a visual image of a river, miles away from its shore, without any use of water speaks volumes about his talent. 

“The diya is used as a metaphor for earth and several of them put together depict the Ganga as the idiom,” says Gupta. “It took me one week to do this installation work here, over one month to weave the chillums at my studio but much longer to procure these earthen artifacts from the potters across the city,” he adds.  

“I have been wanting to do this project since many years…. And I am glad there has been a record turnout of about a hundred thousand footfalls so far. Visitors have been commenting vociferously on it which shows that there is surely a demand for public art,” he says. 

 

The earthen lamp is woven in the cultural-religious fabric of India since time immemorial. And chillum is a means of cheap intoxication to gratify. This humble small clay bowl and the local “cigar” have a nondescript existence and only during that momentary use turn into the medium of gratifying the desires of the soul or the senses.  Taken for granted. Anointed when needed. Only revered when in use. Their life is strange like the Ganga. And how we use the earth’s resources while we live our own life in this minuscule moment of time in the universe,” opines Gupta. 

 

The Time Machine with earthen cups denotes the value of time and how we are running out of it in the context of sustainability,” he says. 

Besides other Indian cities, Gupta has been invited to take this installation art to US and London. “I could have depicted any river, but why I did Ganga is because this is our sacred river, connected to the core of our identity. For us it is not just a river, but a part of our culture, our identity,” he says. “This spiritual connect couldn’t have come with any other river,” he adds. 

In the words of noted art critic Keshav Malik: Manav’s art, facing both forwards and inwards, is a contemplation of spiritual and the natural communion. He has a precise understanding of color and form as the language with which nature tries to communicate meanings and values. 

Gupta has widely exhibited all over the world. His latest installations via Travelling Trilogies in US, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East have got rave reviews from international media.

Gupta has, to his credit, two of the biggest solo-commissioned artworks: The world record five-floor 10,000 sq. ft.  mega mural at Airtel Centre, in Gurgaon (India) and the 20 ft-high Indo-Bhutan friendship mural in Bhutan. 

However, public art is not his only claim to fame. 

In 2003, he was invited by former President Dr A.P.J. Adbul Kalam for a book of poetry and paintings, Life Tree. For two years, he worked with Dr Kalam, giving shape to his words, and in words of Dr Kalam, converting Life Tree into Speaking Tree. 

The same year (2003), he also pioneered the concept of jugalbandi wherein he painted live with leading vocalist Shubha Mudgal performing at Ashok Hotel, Delhi. Later he did jugalbandi with other artists like violnist Dr L. Subramanium, vocalist Anoop Jalota and Santoor player Rahul Sharma, Table player Vijay Ghate, Flutist Rakesh Chaurasia and an Egyptian Ballet Troupe. 

In 2005-06, he made six one-minute films on environment conservation for the Union Ministry of Environment, using his paintings and poems. 

A multi-faceted personality, Gupta is a painter, a performance artist, a poet, a filmmaker, all rolled into one. But underlying each of his works is his love for environment; be it a painting, a film or a poem. 

“I grew up in the lap of nature, in Kolkata, where life brimmed with art, culture and music,” he says. That both his parents were litterateurs was an added bonus for the artist in him. So, along with joining the Presidency College for a B Sc (physiology), he also joined the Academy of Fine Arts for a course in art. 

“I was inclined towards art since childhood. When my friends played cricket and football, I would be sitting with my guru Vasant Pandit, learning the soul of art. All innovations I do are thanks to what I learnt from guruji. For me, art is not iconoclastic. It can make a lot of difference to the lives of people,” he says. 

February 21, 2015 | Press Information Bureau, Government of India - Ministry of Water Resources

To: All Accredited Journalists
Sir/Madam

 

You are cordially invited to cover the following event:

 

Event: Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti to inaugurate the Public Art Innovation on sustainability “ Ganga Waterfront ” by eminent artist Manav Gupta.

 

Date: February 22, 2015

Time: 6 PM

Venue : India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Colony. New Delhi

July - August, 2015 | Indian Creative Minds, Vol. ii, Issue-i | Art of Manav Gupta

By Seema Bhalla

 

Installation at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, Rain, The Ganga Waterfront Along Time Machine’,

“The Shrinking River Ganga”, a 2012 installation, almost looked like a pond. In 2014/15, it took the form of Ganga cascading from the hair locks of Shiva seated atop the Mount Kailash. Ganga’s flow settled down into a gentle stream before multiplying into different streams, ending just before the steps that until the birth of the installation “Ganga..” had the footsteps of human traffic. Except, the Mount Kailash is the abstract geometric wall, the gently falling stream is multiple strings of Chillums, and the settled flow of Ganga in the plains is the arrangement of tiny oil lamps, set together to form the contour of water.

To further clarify, the mention here is not of the real river Ganga, but that of the site-specific installation titled “Rain, the Ganga Waterfront along Time Machine”, which is a continuation of the series “Excavation in Hymns of Clay”. The prayer lamp, accepted universally as a symbol of reverence to a deity, undertakes the role of an organic, undulated river in the installation of Manav Gupta. “Mano toh Ganga maa hun na mano to behta pani”, the lyrics from an old Hindi movie song literally meaning ‘If you believe then I am mother Ganga, and if not, then merely floating water’, became the inspiration behind the public- space art that Kolkata-born Manav Gupta has recreated for the third time.

When asked what would feel at the time of viserajan or immersing of this installation after the exhibition is over, Manav corrects my usage of the word and explains that it is not a viserajan but rather a metamorphosis of the theme. Having worked previously on the theme that began with “Ganga to Thames” made with jute and waste product in 2009-2010, a museum installation on the floor at Nehru Centre, London, and “Unsung Hymns of Clay” in South Africa, at the National Museum, Pretoria, Manav’s third and most recent installation, “Rain, the Ganga Waterfront along Time Machine” comes as continuation of the concept.

Understandably, the journey of the ‘shrinking river’ Ganga of 2012 to the ‘cascading’ Ganga of 2015, enveloping almost the entire space of the Plaza steps of Habitat Centre, New Delhi, translates into the metamorphosis for Manav. But for me, as a viewer, the emotional connect with the installation created a concern about the impermanency of the SERA Solitary Reaper GUST, 2015 Installation “Rain. The Ganga Waterfront. al installation, which would cease to exist soon, thus relating it to the concept of viserajan. Perhaps this is what art is all about. A three-way dialogue between the creation, its creator and the viewer, each with its own interpretation and emotional connect, and that is the beauty of it all. Manav’s installations might have a life span with a duration that lasts from one moment to another, before ceasing to exist, but his 6-floor-high mural at the Bharti Airtel Headquarters, Gurgaon, is a permanent feature of the building. Having involved the entire office staff, from the CEO to the peon, encouraging each one to paint just about anything they could, led to a personal connect and rapport between the mural and the people working in the office. Contemplating on the graffiti-like base that resulted, Manav then created his own composition for the six-storey building. His canvases reveal another facet of his work, which brings to light the duality of permanence and impermanence. In “Umbilical Cords of Clay”, a series that is his signature style, Manav creates the impression of a rain forest in the background and places tiny male silhouettes that are reminiscent of Greek Gods, the athletic bodies of whom have graced the sculptural spaces and vases from the Greek Classical Period. The half-seated marble sculpture from the east pediment of the Greek Temple of Parthenon finds his place along with other architectural sculptures and paintings on vases from the same period, in a frieze-like composition. Just as each drop of water in the rainforest exists for a moment yet leaves its permanent impression in the environment, and the Greek Classical Period has left its permanent impact of its culmination of artistic excellence, the past and present share an umbilical cord connecting each other. The challenge of working with varying sizes seems to come naturally to Manav. While he has created canvases that measure 10,000 sq. ft., he also works on contemporary miniature paintings, measuring all of 6×6 inches. No wonder then that Christie’s, Bonham’s and Philip de Pury count Manav Gupta as one of their artists whose works they have successfully sold. Seema Bhalla is an art historian, critic and curator. She operates from New Delhi and Chandigarh.

April 10, 2015 | Hindustan Times | Art Goes From Earth To Earth

By Arushi Jain

 

Eco-friendly: Art goes from earth to earth

Titled The Ganga Waterfront, the installation by artist Manav Gupta shows the flowing river through thousands of diyas, kulhads and chillums (smoking pipes).

Disposed-chillums-lamps-and-kulhads-triggered-in-Manav-a-desire- to-create-out-of-the-box-art.

Where do those countless diyas go once the festivities are over? What happens to the kulhads that add flavour to your tea? While these earthen objects perhaps find their way to the dumpyard, a beautiful installation is town in making a strong point about the ­­depleting earth resources.Titled The Ganga Waterfront, the installation by artist Manav Gupta shows the flowing river through thousands of diyas, kulhads and chillums (smoking pipes).”I have been working with earthen lamps for a very long time. The installation is quintessentially Indian, as every Indian grows up watching these traditions,” says Gupta, adding that he always had the urge to create something unique out of clay objects.

The installation is quintessentially Indian.

“I wanted to be sure of the medium. I chose clay as I wanted the medium to be intrinsic in its originality and uniqueness. Disposed chillums, lamps and kulhads triggered in me a desire to create some out-of-the-box art using local material.”The increasing river pollution, the shrinking of water and more such climate change issues have been part of Gupta’s work for long. “I grew up in the midst of the green meadows of Kolkata, where I sculpted tree trunks.It took the efforts of over a hundred potters to craft the several thousand earthen lamps, and Gupta himself spent seven days and nights to execute the artwork. “I hope that after observing earthen lamps as public art, people relate to the fact that clay represents the earth and humans, and if we deplete them, we are depleting humankind.”

Catch it live
What: Rain, the Ganga Waterfront: An Installation
Where: India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road

The site specific installation, Unsung Hymns of Clay, using earthen lamps explores environment consciousness. Architecture + Design brings you a glimpse of the concept and treatment, which is fresh , minimalistic, innovative and original…

Architecture+Design

One of India’s most erudite and versatile contemporary artists, Manav Gupta has reinvented the language of clay by infusing true originality of thought and treatment.

Times of India

His “unsung hymns of clay” installation presents the complexity of the relationship between nature and man’s use of it. His work creates a sense of calm, connectedness, and quiet contemplation, rather than invoking agitation. Perhaps for this reason the impact is unexpectedly strong.

Sulger Buel Lovell

unsung hymns of clay

South Africa | unsung hymns of clay | the shrinking river | rainforests and the circle of life

Hosted by National Museum Pretoria,
Indian High Commission
&
Incredible India.

Exhibition extended to Cape Town, Grahams Town by Lovell Gallery.


Travelling trilogy, Edition III
South Africa, USA, Europe, South East Asia

2013-2014 | Bibliographic Index

BBC, Ganga using Diyas and Chillams, December 15, 2014
Feb 12, 2014  Artville Blog  Artist Of The Day – Manav Gupta 

March 14, 2014  The Kenyon Thrill | Claire Bermann   Public Art For NCA s

April 16, 2014  The Weather Network  Cheryl Santa Maria | Five Examples of Nature Inspired Street Art

2014 June Architecture+Design Volume 31 | Issue 6 | Tree of Life

Exotica, Manav Gupta’s unsung hymns of clay, August 2013

Architecture+Design Magazine, Art feature, June 2013

Essay by Pavan K. Varma, Manav Gupta’s “unsung hymns of clay“, April 13, 2013

Mail Today, Gupta’s Green Trilogy, Friday April 26, 2013

The Pioneer, All for Earth, April 15, 2013

Sunday Times, Gupta’s “rainforest art” a Hit, February 24, 2013

IOL | Diane de Beer, Tonight Art | Kaleidoscope of Creativity | February 28, 2013

Artslink, Rainforests and the Circle of Life, March 15, 2013

Biz community.com, Rainforests and the Circle of Life exhibition in Pretoria, February 28, 2013

2013 June Architecture+Design Volume 30 | Issue 6 | Unsung Hymns of Clay

July 01, 2013 |  South African Art Times Page 19| Issue July 2013 9th July – 8th Aug 2013 at Lovell Gallery
International 
environmental artist Manav Gupta  Grahamstown Festival Lovell Gallery Invite, Catalogue

Aug-13 | Exotica Magazine | Songs of Clay

Sep 22nd 2013 | Pocketnews alert  Unsung Hymns Of Clay

September 28th 2013 Articulate UK PRATHAM GALA catalogue Jugalbandi in Colour

November 29, 2014 | Times of India, Exploring Identities in Clay | One of India’s most erudite and versatile  contemporary artists, Manav Gupta has reinvented the language of clay by infusing true originality of thought and treatment in the humble produce of the potters wheel

Dec 24, 2014 |  The Pioneer  | Navneet Mendiratta | Message In Clay

Classic Feel, Quest for life, August 2013
Whats on!, Leading international environmental artist, speaks out. July 2013

Classic feel, Environmental Art – Unsung Hymns of clay  June 20, 2013

SABC News, Feature on Brics : Manav Gupta’s Clay River. (FEATURED YOUTUBE VIDEO)

Expresso, Renowned artist Manav Gupta’s acclaimed exhibition

Get it Pretoria, Art focuses on Nature, March 14, 2013

Media Update, Rainforests and the circle of life exhibition extended to the end of March, March 15, 2013

Record, Spectacular India Culture hits the stage, 8 March, 2013

The Times, Small wonders, February 22, 2013

Curtain Call, Rainforests and the Circle of Life, February 19, 2013

June 20, 2013 | Sulger Buel Lovell  Environmental art – Unsung hymns of clay

June 22, 2013 | High Commission Of India Pretoria SA ,The Lovell Gallery SA   Artist Bio Rainforests And The Circle Of Life

Jun-2013 | High Commission Of India Pretoria SA, The Lovell Gallery SA  | Gallery Invite   July issue, posted on Facebook.

Oct 2nd, 2013 | Classic Feel Magazine. South Africa A quest for Light. The work of leading Indian artist Manav Gupta  

November 29, 2014 | Times of India | Exploring Identities in Clay

By Uma Nair

Clay has multiple possibilities and Delhi’s Manav Gupta unveils numerous installations in his explorations in clay. One of India’s most erudite and versatile contemporary artists, Manav Gupta has reinvented the language of clay by infusing true originality of thought and treatment in the humble produce of the potter’s wheel – deploying and transforming the readymade clay objects of everyday partisan use in India like the earthen lamps, cups and “chillam” – the Indian rural humble cigar into sustainable development metaphors of large scale installations.

He has been working all of this year on his mega show of Public Art that would punctuate multiple public venues beginning with the first set of installations that are now ready at Aerocity where he has been creating artworks for an entire building near the T3 International Airport in Delhi.

Clay for him is earth and its five elements. Lending new meanings of form to humble clay objects he intersects environmental consciousness with the real wealth that is earth; inverting the objects themselves into Duchamp like new identities that explore the concept of time and sustainable development, Life and love and human existence and the way of life of the ever pervading consuming mega metropolis.Much before climate change became drawing room conversation and awareness gathered momentum, Manav has been engaging with environmental consciousness since the past two decades; The artist has carved a niche for himself globally, inculcating his concern and respect for environment and his own contemplation of spiritual and the natural communion, his strength and sensibilities that he draws from Nature in his works right since the very beginning of his art journey.

Having worked on Ganga as the RIVER and RAINFORESTS as his calling for many years in his paintings and after his three traveling trilogies in recent years to Middle East U.S. and Europe with solo exhibitions at Amherst, M.A., New York, Des Moines, Iowa, San Francisco, C.A. Berlin, Germany and London, U.K., Muscat, Oman, that fetched him international acclaim, he adopted clay objects as his medium of transformational evolving language of installations to take his engagement with above further.The first suite of works premiered from his clay series “unsung hymns of clay” at the National Museum in South Africa, hosted by the Indian High Commission that became a part of the outreach for BRICS Summit receiving widespread critical acclaim.This year marks a full blown mega series that he has been intensely working on since then, engaging with multiple venue public spaces across the globe, beginning with Delhi.The earthen lamp, cups and other objects are woven in the cultural-religious-social fabric of India from time immemorial. This humble small clay bowl or the earthen cup or “chillam” is shaped by poor potters who keep them in large numbers by the road side in heaps for selling. Sometimes beside garbage dumps or beside sewage drain they have a nondescript existence till the time they are bought home by people.

Once home, only at the time of worship, or as temporary use material to be discarded, they are used as a tool at the altar or at eventful existences that are fleeting and transient.That’s the only time when they are recognised or valued. The same humble small bowl of clay that had no meaning, no significance or existence in the human psyche suddenly turns into the medium of conveying the desires of the soul or the temporary vessel of gratification. Sacred only when placed at the altar or the table or when used for a drag.“The earthen lamp assumes the status of the Holy Grail carrying one’s prayers of the soul to the Gods and our spirit awakens. Once the prayer ends, the earthen lamp is discarded again to be immersed in the Ganges. The cup meets a similar fate.

Taken for granted. Anointed when needed. Only revered when in use. And after its purpose is served, discarded and thrown and another one bought to serve the desires of the soul yet another day. It is life is strange as the way of the world and the circle of life. Like the unsung hymns of clay. “Using the earthen objects as metaphors, Manav explores issues of environment consciousness. We recognize and respect earth only when we use its resources for our use without reverence. Having been a part of such religious and cultural rituals for many years and having grown up and lived this practice in India for years this whole symbolic circle of life has deeply affected the artist to use these earthen produce of the potter as a metaphor to explore and raise questions on environment consciousness.
His installations touch upon issues of equality, respect, treatment towards objects, situations, people and the essence of life beyond manmade boundaries. The artist has also taken his analogy from the Ganges. The sacred river of India has dedications that have always poured on it in many ways.The pollution of the Ganges, the shrinking of water and its availability and such other climate change issues have been in the artist’s ethos of work since beginning

June 20, 2013 | Environmental art - Unsung hymns of clay

By Sulger Buel Lovell

International environmental artist, Manav Gupta speaks out about climate change and sustainable development at Lovell Gallery and National Arts Festival.

He speaks in poetry and visual metaphor through installations and through paintings layered in watercolour, acrylic and oils, communicating in light and colour and lyrical form, all that he perceives in nature and how it relates to his soul.

As audience, when ‘green issues’ are mentioned, we are coming to expect to be lectured or made to feel guilty. Manav’s approach is the opposite. He presents nature to us, its beauty and vulnerability. His “unsung hymns of clay” installation presents the complexity of the relationship between nature and man’s use of it. His work creates a sense of calm, connectedness, and quiet contemplation, rather than invoking agitation. Perhaps for this reason the impact is unexpectedly strong.

Proclaimed “fresh, minimalistic, innovative and original” by Architecture and Design (June 2013), in this latest installation the artist inverts thousands of Indian earthen lamps to transfigure them into a river of clay.

As Cultural Commentator, Pavan K Varma explains: “the earthen lamp is a part of every home in India. It is a utilitarian vessel at one level, but a powerful vehicle of reverence at another …. Manav has elevated this humble piece of clay to an artistic pedestal with remarkable finesse. Its simplicity is breathtaking, but its meaning is multi-dimensional. For him it is the bridge between the individual and the divine. It is prayer incarnate, yearning personified. It represents the soil, mother earth, the pact with nature. Its very fragility is a pointer to both the environmental crisis we are facing and the need to do something about it.”

Coined the ‘master of light’, Manav Gupta is one of India’s leading contemporary artists and is listed by Financial Times among ten contemporary Indian artists whose works would fetch good returns. His works have been auctioned and sold at Christie’s, Bonham’s, Philip de Pury, and are represented in private and museum collections worldwide. Best known for his mega murals and as a pioneer of collaborative art practices, his record six floor high ‘ Tree of Life’ fetched Museum site status for Airtel Campus, by the Limca Book of Records 2012 and 2013.

‘Unsung hymns of clay’ forms part of the third edition of Manav Gupta’s global exhibition: Traveling Trilogy III – Rainforests and the circle of life, which has toured the US, Europe and South East Asia prior to coming to South Africa. After premiering in Pretoria, the exhibition makes its Cape Town debut at a special preview on Saturday 22nd June, a selection of miniatures then travel to the National Arts Festival, and return for the exhibition’s month long run from July 9th to August 10th at The Lovell Gallery in Woodstock.

Feb 28, 2013 | IOL | Diane de Beer | Kaleidoscope Of Creativity

By Diane de Beer 

He first discovered art when he found it tough to deal with his emotions. He turned to his earlier happier life, revisited the environment that offered safety and warmth and drew on all of that to create his beautiful paintings.

Manav Gupta, who trained in Kolkata at the Academy of Fine Arts under Rathin Maitra and under his guru Vasant Pandit and currently works in New Delhi is exhibiting Rainforests and the Circle of Life, hosted by the Indian High Commissioner, Virendra Gupta.

It is a travelling trilogy of paintings, installations, films and performance on display at Pretoria’s National Museum of

Cultural History in Visagie Street until March 10.

“This was long before people were talking about climate change,” he says. But even as a young man, he knew he was connected to nature. And this was how this travelling exhibition was first developed, because of his wish to spread the message in a different way.

“People talk on many different levels about the climate and their concerns but sometimes the softer dimensions of the environment is lost.”

 

That’s what he hoped to capture with a series of promotional films, paintings large and small, performance art and installations. Because of logistics, mostly out of his control, the full breadth of the exhibition isn’t possible in the current showing, but if you can catch the artist on the premises, he will talk you through the work, a rewarding experience.

For an outsider, the references are there and one or two of the bigger works have an Indian feel, but it is the use of Indian philosophy and spirituality that centres rather than dominates the work. The approach is contemporary. There’s a universal quality about his work that would make it difficult to pinpoint the continent it comes from.

Light, and thus hope, is what drives his work in a metaphorical and practical sense“It seeks you out,” he says, and that is what inspires his quest for light. Colour also comes into play. Something, he says, nurtures the soul, and has many different levels. He had many cross-cultural influences as a child as his parents, who were both scholars, introduced and surrounded him with this richly diverse world. But more than anything, nature is the one single element that nurtured him most.

He cannot paint cosmetically, he explains. “I can only try to convey what I have experienced.”

And perhaps that’s why his paintings leave one with an emotional rather than intellectual response. But that’s only part of it. The fullness of his work only becomes clear as he talks about his performances which he derived from an ancient Indian experience called jugalbandi which means collaboration but in the past it was always a conversation between two musicians. “I wondered why an artist and musician couldn’t do the same?”

And this is where his live drawing started. Some of his country’s most respected musicians have come on board and while they perform a particular piece of music, he will paint something in response to what the music says to him.

“I have always loved music and it made sense to me to try something like this,” notes Manav, whose curiosity keeps propelling him into new worlds of consciousness.

Scale doesn’t scare him even though most of the work displayed locally is almost postcard-size.

One of his biggest challenges was painting a mural on a six- storey building, a corporate affair, expansive in scale. “They wanted to create something that would make the building live,” he explains.

And what he came up with is simply brilliant. He invited all the employees of Airtel, one of India’s largest telcom companies, to participate. “I used their work simply as colour and went from there,” he notes. What he created is similar to the movie Tree of Life.

This is the tallest and largest three-dimensional indoor staircase mural by an artist – it covers about 464m2 of visible frontage through a glass façade and 928m2 of total painted surface.

Working on a 360° platform of canvases, video installations and performances he has also collaborated with dance troupes and audiences in public art projects besides his performances and exhibitions at different venues.

Gupta’s works have been sold by Christie’s, Bonhams, Phillip de Pury and are in leading permanent public collections around the world including the Parliament of India, the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Royal family of Oman, Indian embassies abroad, Chitrakala Parishad and Birla Academy museums.

He has co-authored a book of poems and paintings with former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, he also creates single edition functional sculptures and public installations with varied media including iron, steel, wood, discarded roots of trees, glass, recycled scrap metal and clay for interior and exterior corporate and private spaces.

But don’t expect it to stop there. If he latches on to a new idea that’s intriguing, that’s what he’ll do.

“It’s all about the learning experience,” he says. Not only will he grow, so do those who experience his work. If you want to see how he reflects the light, first contact the artist, and see if he can walk you through the work – on site

April 15, 2013 | The Pioneer | All for earth

Manav Gupta’s recent mega installation uses earthen lamps as metaphors on environmental issues. The artist has four entries in this year’s limca Book of Records. He spoke to D Kaushik

He is known for king sized murals. The six-floor high, 5000 sq feet in façade and 10000 sq foot  painted surface of a mural at the Airtel headquarters in Gurgaon, is among his more prominent works. Gupta employs a contemporary artistic language used to spread a message about environment conservation. He remarked, “I respect and love the earth and nature. And I have always tried to create awareness concerning environmental issues. I have worked in this field for many years. I grew up with nature and this reflects in my work.”

Gupta’s latest exhibition is called Unsung Hymns of Clay. Currently showcasing in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, it features a large installation called River of Clay, which uses earthen lamps as metaphors for Indian spirituality, conveying how we use the earth to our advantage.

Manav explained, “While growing up, I saw earthen lamps lying in heaps. They always seemed non-descript. But the same lamps, when lit at the altar for prayer, took on different meaning. They are considered sacred, but we discard them after their purpose is served. I used them as a metaphor for Earth. We connect to her but damage and exploit her too.”

He added, “It is believed when you use diyas for worship of the lord, you do not have to purify the mud bowls with holy Ganges water, because they already are pure. Oil is poured and the wicker lit is holy. But when prayer is complete the lamp is discarded. So the title, Unsung Hymns of Clay.”He also references the pollution done to the river Ganga.

The installation with over hundreds of earthen lamps appears  as a flowing water from the distance. The inverted lamps are arranged in neat, but flowing sequences. In its entirety it can fill the Tate Turbine Hall. “I have given a language to the lamps, which is minimalistic yet dramatic,” he added.

Manav just returned from South Africa after the High Commission of India hosted the premiere and launch of the third edition of his travelling trilogy at the National Museum there, after two successive previous editions in recent years in US, Europe and the Middle East. It was extended by the Federal Museum, as an outreach during the BRICS Summit.

“As the exhibition focusses on sustainable development, human responses to the environment and man’s role in climate change and other environmental hazards faced, the duration of display has been extended,” informed Gupta. He took over a year to complete the installation and plans to show it in India too.

2013 | Classic Feel | A Quest for Light

A quest for light

The work of the leading Indian artist, Manav Gupta was introduced to South African art lovers earlier this year at an exhibition titled Rainforests And The Circle Of Life. Classicfeel took the opportunity to speak to the artist.

Light  is a common preoccupation among visual artists. Painters and photographers alike are always seeking to find light that illuminates their subjects  in just the right way and to capture  it – somehow to trap  within the physical confines of their medium. For Manav Gupta, however, the concern with light goes beyond the problems of the medium to become the subject itself. ‘for me  it has always been a quest for light.’ he says. ‘I seek light -in gaps, in crevices and ventricles of the rainforests.

For me light is hope. It seeks you out amidst the  darkness. So the process of seeking out  and finding the way forward with that single streak of light has been the journey of my life and work.’

The works on display during Gupta’s exhibition in Pretoria earlier this  year were clear expressions of this ongoing preoccupation with light. The centerpiece of  the exhibition, which also included several  of the artist’s paintings, was an imaginative installation called   Unsung Hymns of Clay Forming the heart of this site specific work is a large mass of small clay pots called diya- used as lamps in various Indian religious occasions –innovatively reimagined as the contours  of a drying riverbed. These simple earthen bowls, when filled with oil, augmented by a cotton  wick and lit. become  spiritual instruments. With the addition of a tiny flame,  these common, disposable pieces of clay become links to the divine. A small bit of light thus elevates the profane towards the sacred

Unsung Hymns of Clay is the third in a trilogy of exhibitions called Rainforests and the Circle of Life. which, aside from the ongoing exploration of the qualities-both empirical and spiritual – of light. also explores environmental consciousness as the central theme in Gupta’s work. The fresh and minimalistic treatment of the lamps laid out on the floor remind the viewer of a dried up riverbed. This links to discussions around water and its increasing scarcity in some places around the world, which speaks to wider issues of natural resources and the environment. Which are also matters of deep concern to Gupta and have occupied his thoughts since before his career began.

Born  and raised in Kolkata, India, the birthplace of the Nobel  Prize for Literature  laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Gupta’s own versatile repertoire comes from writer and scholar parents who made a point of exposing him to art and culture during his formative years.

“I was exposed to prose and poetry from a young age.’ he says, ‘as well as music, theatre and dance. I also grew up in the  lap of nature because my father was the director of the national library, which is situated on this patch of green,  complete with  lush, budding trees. Which can almost be described as an island in the middle of the city.’ Combining  with the strong influences of culture and  nature were  ideas about spirituality and transcendence.’ I  had a guru, when I was a child .who had  spent a lot of time in the forests and so on and he taught me the soul of art  and the essence of nature. All ofthese things made a very strong   impression on how I grew up and how my work evolved.’

While he learned about ‘the soul of art’ from his guru, Gupta was taught ‘the grammar of art’ at Kolkata’s renowned Academy of Fine Arts.

After completing his education ,he did not go straight into a career in  the arts_ ‘I worked for a while-I had to support my mother_ I was doing very well, I  had a good job,  I was secure. But one day I decided to take the plunge. Everyone said I was crazy- art will never pay the bills!  But I knew that if I didn’t do it then,  I would  never do it. ‘Gupta’s first solo exhibition was extremely successful and brought him an invitation to show in the Indian capital, where his  works drew the attention of the   wife of the US Ambassador to India, who bought some of his works  and hosted his exhibition at Roosevelt House_ The environmental themes in  his work introduced him  to members of the Indian government, which     led to his work being displayed in the Ministry of Culture. commissions by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, a collaboration with former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam (Gupta illustrated a book of poetry by the former head of state  and a mural commissioned to mark the long friendship between  India and Bhutan.

Perhaps Gupta’s most famous work -thus far -is the 11000 square-foot. six-floor high mega-mural .The Tree of life, which adorns the New Delhi headquarters of the multinational telecommunications company, Bharti Airtel. The creation of this work was unique in itself, with Gupta employing four creative processes. for the first time, in its making -namely conceptual. performance. collaborative and site specific. He invited the company’s employees to share the experience of painting with him in the  first phase using what was created to weave a composition on a six-floor high staircase, while   the organization’s  employees watched. ‘How I saw it was  you have 4000 employees  who are going to be watching me work every day. So I thought, why don’t we make this  a collaborative process? I opened up to all these non-artists.  They would be there doing their job and then on their coffee break they could come and add a brushstroke here and there. It was exciting as well as challenging, especially as I was  conceptualizing spontaneously without any blueprints. I juggled between the micro   environment of helping the office workers paint and the  larger role of creating a cutting edgeartwork.’ This massive undertaking resulted in the giant  work of art that has seen the Airtel building being granted museum status.

Gupta’s first trip to South  Africa took place at the invitation of the Indian  High Commission in Pretoria. Unsung Hymns of Clay,  together with a number of earlier works,  went on display at the National Museum of Cultural History. The response to  the exhibition-from

the public. collectors and the media alike-was very favourable.

 

Manav Gupta  is an artist quickly growing in international  renown and his works are recognised by collectors as excellent investments both for artistic and economic reasons. But, contrary to the misconceptions propagated  by popular culture, the achievement  of fame and recognition does not signify a destination. For Gupta.  the effort to expand consciousness and create awareness. And most importantly,  the quest for light. continues. CF

June, 2013 | Architecture + Design | Art Feature | Unsung Hymns of Clay

Art Feature
Unsung Hymns Of Clay

The third edition of the travelling trilogy ‘Rainforests and the Circle ff Life’ by renowned artist Manav Gupta was recently hosted by the High Commission of India, South Africa, at the National Museum,Pretoria. The site specific installation, Unsung Hymns of Clay, using earthen lamps explores environment consciousness. Architecture + Design brings you a glimpse of the concept and treatment, which is fresh , minimalistic, innovative and original…

The earthen lamp is woven in the cultural-religious  fabric of India from time immemorial. Once home ,only at the time of worship,they are used as a tool at the altar. Oncde the prayer ends,it is discarded again to be immersed in the Ganges.Itslife is strange at the way of the world and the circle of life, like the unsung hymns of clay.

By using the earthen lamp as the metaphor,the artist explores glaring issues of how perception and context interplay with each other. The installation touches upon issues of equality,respect, treatment toward objects,situations,people and the essence of life beyond manmade boundaries.The pollution of rivers,the shrinking water and its availability and such otheclimate change issues have been in the artist’s ethos of work. In this installation. With the minimalistic approach, the srtidtdepicts his philosophy in understated tones that touch deeply and reverberate, lingering in the mind long after the visual engagement ends.

August, 2013 | Exotica | Songs of Clay

As artist Manav Gupta prepares for the  London leg of his third travelling trilogy, Rainforests and the Circle of Life, wetake a look at the premiere of his works at the National Museum in South Africa earlier this year.Text Navneet Mendiratta

Nature moves him. So much that he sways to tunes and attempts to capture and re create all that he clicks with the eyes of his mind.” For Manav Gupta his art is a contemplation of spiritual and the natural communion. Medium does not restrict him. So he plays with a wide range- from the conceptual to multimedia, installations to ambient spaces, the canvas to sculptures- as he puts it to fresh creative tasks.

Technically he is sound. And therefore when the High Commission of India, Pretoria, launched ‘Unsung Hymns Of Clay’, the third edition of his travelling trilogy- ‘Rainforests And The Circle Of Life’- in South Africa ,earlier this year, he added many more accolades to his kitty and very effortlessly at that.

His installations and conceptual works on display brought to fore the physical interface of globbal warming- man’s interference with earth’s natural ecosystems and disregard to environmental consciousness. It is  not as if that the idea struck Gupta all of a sudden. Much before climate change became drawing room conversation and awareness gathered momentum, Gupta has been inculcating his concern and respect for the environment in his works since the very beginning.In his own words he draws his own spiritual  strength from the nature.

“When I paint what transcends on the canvas are the hope and the power of the eternal truths of the nature’s enblematicsymbols.” he says adding, “ Light for me is hope and colour and the Universe in which it exists.” This is when for him the world loses its meaning and the larger one takes over…..and I paint,” he states.

His installations presents the complexities of the relationship between nature and man’s use of it. His works create a sense of calm, connectedness and quiet  contemplation, rather than invoking agitation. Perhaps for this reason the impact is unexpectedly strong.

In his installation, the shrinking river in clay, he has used the earthen lamp or diya as a metaphor to explore the issues of environment consciousness. “ We recognize and respect earth only when we use its resources without reverence. Having been a part of religious rituals for many years and having grown up and lived this practice in India for  years , I have been affected by this whole symbolic circle of life. The diyas in my installation explore and raise questions on environmental consciousness,” he shares.

The artist has also taken his analogy from the sacred river Ganga and drawn inspiration from the opening lines of the lyrics of an old song from an Indian movie that speaks about the dichotomy of perception – “ If you believe, then I am sacred or else mere water that flows….’ He has tried to address the issue of pollution of the rivers ,the shrinking water and it availability and other climate change issues.

With a minimalistic approach, the srtist depicts his philosophy in understanding tones  that touch deeply and reverberate, lingering in the mind long after the visual engagement ends.And it stays there.

70 EXOTICA AUGUST 2013 : Le AUGUST 2013 EXOTICA 71

 

Limca Book of Records

The Tree of Life is the Tallest and the Largest Indoor Staircase Mural

Page-126
ISBN 978-93-82867-00-5

Artist Manav Gupta’s Tree of Life at Airtel Centre, Gurgaon, is the tallest and the largest indoor staircase mural measuring approximately, 5,000 square feet in view and 10,000 sq ft in its entire dimensions.

He used multiple processes in conceptual art, site-specific art, collaborative art and performance art, visible all over the campus through a 60 ft high glass facade across five floors as a single canvas merging surrounding sides and roof into one composition. Further, Gupta guided all 3,500 employees at the site to put strokes and idioms on his artwork in the initial half of the project. The second half of the project involved weaving, merging and continuing his marathon two-month performance art practice alone; live.

The mural tells the story of consistent innovation.

Limca Book of Records

Pioneer of Performance Art in India since 2002

Page – 133
ISBN 978-93-82867-00-5

Manav Gupta’s performance art makes the audience experience music by ‘seeing’ it live on the canvas. His live art performances interpret the music, poetry or dance of a performing artiste on his canvas.

Some of the artistes that Gupta has collaborated with include Dr L Subramaniam, (violin}, Snubha Mudgal (vocal), Anup Jalota, (vocal), Rahui Sharma, (santoor), Vijay Ghatke (percussion), Rajesh Chaurasia (fiute), ballet performers, contemporary dancers, Indian classical dancers and Egyptian folk dancers from 2002 -2012.

Limca Book of Records

First One Minute Films on Environment Consciousness as Public Art Projects

Page – 108
ISBN 978-93-82867-00-5

Based on a decade long engagement with environment through his art, artist Manav Gupta was invited and commissioned by Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt of India to ideate / reflect his work on environment through his paintings. The artist responded by taking his paintings to engage with his own poetry, music and voice to create one-minute films as public service messages on climate change and sustainable development to be used for public broadcast on national prime time channels. He completed one-minute films on trees, alternate energy sources, INDIAN sustainable development and mega size video installations on rain forests for CINEMA public programmes, engagements and television broadcast. The films are bilingual (English and Hindi) with 30-sec and one-minute versions for broadcast. Premiered by Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt of India on World Environment Day 2006, they are now shown at international seminars and conferences along with the 2012 new releases. The mega video installations on
rainforests on the other hand are projected on giant Screens as public engagement programmes.

Mar 26, 2013 | SABC News | An exhibition by New Delhi based contemporary Artist Manav Gupta at the Cultural Museum.

Morning Live is playing features on the Brics members to give some insight. We look at India. We look at an exhibition by New Dehli based contemporary Artist Manav Gupta at the Cultural Museum in Pretoria.

Mar 5, 2013 | Expresso Partners | Manav Gupta at the National Museum of Cultural History, Pretoria

The High Commission of India in Pretoria is hosting one of India’s lauded artists, Manav Gupta, and his acclaimed exhibition of artworks titled “Rainforests and the Circle of Life”. The exhibition is currently running at the Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History until the 10th of March, 2013, and serves as a celebration of the Indian Diaspora in South Africa.

Painted by Manav Gupta, this mega mural, formally inaugurated this week, is a first of its kind piece of art.

Delhi Times, Times of India

Sunil Bharti Mittal unviels Manav Gupta's Tree of Life Mural at the Airtel Campus.

People Magazine

The Tree of Life is the tallest and largest indoor staircase mural.

Limca Book of Records

travelling trilogy

USA, Europe, South Asia

New York, Des Moines, Iowa, Amherst, San Francisco | Berlin, London | New Delhi | Phuentsholing

tree of life

  • Tree of Life Mural. 11500 Square ft of total Painted Surface.
  • 5000 Square ft of Glass facade. 
  • 3 Dimensional vs 2 Dimensional integration.
  • Artist’s unique four deployed processes of creation.

Largest Indoor Staircase Mural.
A World Record.

2010-2012 | Bibliographic Index

Limca Books of Records- National Record-Manav Gupta Tree of Life – Spread of 5 ft and Towering over 60ft  5000 sq ft in view and over 10000 sq ft of total painted surface – 3500 Employees

February 2012 | Architecture+Design | Bringing colour to walls facades.

March 2012 | Exotica | Manav Gupta’s contribution to INDO-BHUTANESE Relations | Strokes of Harmony

October 31st 2011 | Tedx Lingaya University, India | Destiny and Desire – Manav Gupta

Limca Books of Records-National Record-Manav Gupta Tree of Life – Spread of 5 ft and Towering over 60ft  5000 sq ft in view and over 10000 sq ft of total painted surface – 3500 Employees | ISBN 978-81-921144-4-6

August 2010 | Namaskaar | Tree of Life

January 2010 | Eyeview | Volume 5 | Paintings by Manav Gupta

August 2 2010 | Outlook | Mural Musings | Delhi Art

July 23 2010 | HT Live Noida | For the Love of Environment | Rajkumari Tankha

July 20 2010 | The Pioneer | Jugalbandi of Life | Divya Kapoor

July 13, 2010 | Delhi Times | Article by Suruchi Sharma | The big picture, 5000 square feet, 1000 people, 400 cans of paint-what’s artist Manav Gupta been upto?

September 8, 2010 | The Des Moines Register | Article by Michael Morain | Indian artist brings his ‘trilogy’ here, Internationally acclaimed Manav Gupta’s show at D.M.Social club to include collaborative art event.

13 August, 2010 | People Magazine | Caught In The Act | ‘Sunil Bharti Mittal inaugurated a mega mural at the Airtel Centre, painted by artist Manav Gupta

June 13, 2010 | Times of India | Page One, Delhi Times | The big picture by Manav Gupta

By Suruchi Sharma

Manav Gupta working on the mural.

If you visit the sprawling Bharti Cellular office at Gurgaon, be ready to be pleasantly surprised by a five storey high magnum opus – a painting.

As you enter, you’ll be greeted by the 5,000-square-foot Tree of Life right in the centre of the building, showcasing the five elements of nature.

Painted by Manav Gupta, this mega mural, formally inaugurated this week, is a first of its kind piece of art – in Delhi at least. And it took Manav (with a good dose of help from the employees, whose office it is, of course) just two months to finish the project. It took more than a 1,000 employees, investing some 2,000 man-hours, and around 400 cans of acrylic paint and preservatives to give a lovely structure to a blank five storey staircase.

Ask Manav as to how the project came about and he says, “I used to do jugalbandis between art, music and poetry. This time, I thought of bringing the spontaneity of the masses to the fore, and that’s how I thought of collaborative art.” He adds, “I could have created the mural alone, but I wanted the involvement of the employees. Each person who has contributed even so much as a brush stroke would have a sense of bonding with the huge space. Their learning and their experience would be unique – something they would carry back with them.”But how were so many employees told how to make an artistic whole? Manav says he’d allot them spaces to paint. Sometimes he guided them, sometimes they were asked to go wild with figures. “The concept was challenging but at the same time creative, as each person was with his/her unique thought. Some wanted to paint bleeding hearts, some wanted to paint books or rangoli,” says Manav. And how did he ensure that all they painted looked like one artwork at the end of the day? “The employees would come between 11 am and 5 pm. After they left, I worked on their art, transforming multifarious hues, shapes, colours and idioms into a composite mega canvas that spoke one language,” says Manav. The mural shows the five elements of nature, one on each floor. The ‘Tree of life,’ a symbol of earth, on first floor; the ‘Peacock’ on second, symbolising water and celebration; a horizon and ‘Leaves’ on the third, denoting air; an introspecting ‘Gaze’ on the fourth, as a symbol of space; and the ‘Glow’ on the fifth denoting fire. The employees are all too happy with the result. “What we have created is a masterpiece and I can proudly say that I am a part of it,” says Manish Khare.

July 23, 2010 | The Indian Express | Mittal unveils 5-storey high mural at Airtel Centre

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel Group, officially unveiled a 5 storey high mural conceptualized and created by Manav Gupta at the Airtel Centre in Gurgaon, recently.

This unique piece of art is co- created by over 3500 employees of the Airtel Centre and thereby encapsulates the collective spirit, innovative minds and creative approach of the employees of the company. Airtel Centre in Gurgaon is spread over 6, 85,921 sqft of vibrant efficient space. It houses all the businesses of the Group viz. Mobile services, DTH, Enterprise and Telemedia

.Speaking about the creation of the mural, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel said, “The elements of nature have been woven together to capture the core values of Airtel and highlight the One Airtel Spirit. It is a true reflection of the collective approach & innovative minds of our company. We thank all the Airtel employees who participated in co-creating this mural with Manav Gupta, who has been the “Sutradhar” in channelizing our vision into this mega masterpiece.

“Spread over five floors and towering over 60 feet, the interior of the building has been used innovatively as a canvas to lay out the mega masterpiece.Manav Gupta, an internationally acclaimed multifaceted painter, poet and performance artist, undertook the goal of creating a contemporary work of art “Tree of life” at the Airtel centre. Under the guidance of Manav Gupta, around 3500 Airtel employees created the mega masterpiece.The art work is an interpretation of the desire to create and identify with “Multi-dimensional energy & Innovation” themes that one relates to the Airtel brand.

Some important elements that weave these myriad hues and help the story unfold are “The Roots” at the foundation of the canvas, depicting how it all started; “The Gaze” which is a reflection of the soul of the organization; “The Peacock” which enthuses about the joy of being; and “The Glow” revealing the path to enlightenment.

Sep 03, 2010 | The Hindu | Thousands Of Hands, One Mural

By Ankita Dhyani

A five-storey-high mural now adorns the Airtel Centre campus in Gurgaon If you thought creativity is place discerning and you would find a magnificent piece of art only in an art exhibition, think again; for a walk through the Airtel Centre, Gurgaon, will clear all such notions.

A five-storey-high mural on the sprawling Airtel campus is a superlative artwork. What makes it unique is not only the massive size but the fact that it has been painted by around 3,500 Airtel employees, under the supervision of acclaimed artist Manav Gupta.

When Airtel recently brought together all its business verticals under one roof, the HR team came forth with this idea of nurturing collective employee engagement.

“The creation of this mega mural is a symbol of the collaborative spirit and innovative minds of our employees. The art work is symbolic of the Airtel brand, which is multi-dimensional and innovative. It captures the core values of our company and manages to highlight” the “One Airtel” spirit,” says Krish Shankar, Director of HR.Employees and senior management were equally enthusiastic about this initiative. Even Sunil Mittal, Chairman and MD of Bharti Group, contributed by giving a final stroke to the mural. For some it was a first-time experience with the paintbrush and colour, while for some it was a trip down memory lane. “Coming out of our mundane lifestyle and imprinting the wall was not only refreshing but also strengthened our bond with our workplace,” beams Upasana Bhurani, an employee. Artist Manav Gupta, renowned for his earlier works of ‘jugalbandi’ or collaborative art, was commissioned by Airtel for this project. According to Gupta, “It was a challenging yet soul-nourishing experience. Painting with 3,500 people for three months and moulding it all into one structure was a complex task.”

Aug 15, 2010 | The Telegraph | An Artist’s Abode

By Hoihnu Hoizel

Artist and sculptor Manav Gupta loves collecting unusual objects. And his collection of oddities includes discarded and gnarled tree trunks and roots of fallen trees. He picks these up randomly and diligently carts them home.

What he does with them is even more interesting. He works on them for days, even carving on them, till they morph into utilitarian items like tables and chairs. Sometimes he simply lets the blocks of wood be and uses them like sculptures that he artfully displays in his home. His three bedroom apartment in Noida, on the fringes of Delhi, is outfitted with furniture made with sturdy roots and tree trunks.

Gupta and his wife are not souvenir hunters. So, the house is not cluttered with knick-knacks bought from their trips abroad. Instead, there are pieces that remind Gupta of his journey as an artist in Calcutta where he began his career from a tiny room. “I keep them lest I forget my roots,” he says.

Gupta moved from Calcutta (where he grew up) to Delhi in 1998. Since then Delhi has been home to him, his wife Sudeshna, their 13-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter. Gupta, 41, bought the ninth floor flat in Noida about six years ago.

Along with this flat, Gupta bought another apartment close by that he converted into his studio. “It’s peaceful and no traffic sounds disturb me while I am working,” he says.

Gupta has given the flat some trendy touches without making any structural changes. He ripped out the ordinary mosaic flooring and went for white marble instead. One section of the wall in his drawing room has very subtle imprints of leaves that he painstakingly created with his painting brush. He’s played with colours and painted the cupboards in his studio a vibrant green. The cupboards in the kitchen are painted in different shades of brown to give a wood feel.

 

Gupta says he’s house-proud and loves to create artwork for his home. This is evident at the main entrance which has a door that Gupta designed himself. The iron door has wrought-iron figures of human forms welded into it. Another attention-grabber here is a cheerful print of Gupta’s painting.

Step through the door and you might be forgiven for thinking that you’d accidentally stepped into an art gallery. The bright and airy living-room has three rows of Gupta’s paintings at different levels. One part of a wall is dedicated to his recent works. These paintings, he says firmly, will never be up for sale.

The drawing room is lively with colourful cushions and furniture designed by Gupta. There’s a glass-topped side-table with a chess board pattern painted on it. The table has a lower level with another chess board complete with pawns. He loves an old wooden box that he picked up from a gas station and embellished with Persian script. The piece has been with him for over a decade now and he’s converted it into a mini bar.

The dining table again is a head-turner in the living-cum-dining room. The legs, shaped like dogs, are made from a chopped tree trunk making perfect use of the branches to support the glass top. The living room leads to the two bedrooms, both of which have balconies overlooking neighbouring apartments. Gupta’s sketches and acrylic paintings adorn the bedrooms.

His home studio also doubles up as his workstation with a computer in place. You can find tubes of acrylic paints neatly stacked in one corner. And of course, Gupta’s paintings on the walls pretty much sum up the look.

Gupta changes the look of his home every few years. The next look he says will be ultra-contemporary. But he will have to find the time to renovate. Right now he has his hands full as he’s preparing for forthcoming exhibitions. Between now and October he’s scheduled for an exhibition that will travel through Europe with 30 of his paintings. On his return in November, he will prepare for another in Bhutan. He says: “But before taking off again, I will take refuge at home to unwind and still my thoughts.”

Written in 2021 | Essay on the occasion of the artist's 25 years | Miss Monika Mohta, Former Indian Ambassador to Switzerland, Former Director of The Nehru Centre and Minister (Culture) at the High Commission of India to the United Kingdom (2006-2011) | ‘Ganga to Thames, on my eyot. Rainforests and the Timeless metaphors of dreams. An ode to Turner. A tribute to Tagore - London, 2010

I have known Manav for more than a decade now as one of the foremost contemporary artists of our country and a wonderful human being. I had a first-hand experience of the sensitivity, maturity, and depth of his versatile oeuvre, when I was the Director of Nehru Centre, London. We had hosted his exhibition, in 2010, titled ‘Ganga to Thames, on my eyot. Rainforests and the Timeless metaphors of dreams. An ode to Turner. A tribute to Tagore.’

‘Rainforests’, ‘Rivers’ and the ‘five elements of Nature’, and how people from different parts of the world relate to the issues of water, are recurring themes in his art journey. At the Nehru Centre, he laid out a river full of plastics, amidst the exhibition, improvising with limited resources and material, to draw home the message of sustainable living – a consistent echo in his art practice since his very early beginnings, much before climate change became widespread conversation.

Viewers were drawn to the mastery of light and colour in his paintings at the exhibition. I was not surprised at all when two of his works from the series, that were chosen by two different London based NGOs, for fundraisers for the underprivileged, did so well – one at Christie’s, London and the other at a Philip de Pury auction at Kensington Palace.

Over the last decade his work has grown manifold. I had a chance to attend one of his public art projects at the India Habitat Centre, Delhi in 2015 and experience the invention he is now known for – that of transforming quintessential Indian pottery into an international vocabulary of contemporary art, taking local to global. He had created a river in the heart of the city, as a large-scale installation. What was particularly interesting is that he did not stop there. On the bedrock of his creation, he invited public participation. A call to people to light a lamp at his ‘Ganga Waterfront’ brought a soul connect to the sacred river of our land. And he took its context beyond borders and religion to a global perspective of creating consciousness about respecting water and rivers, bringing environmental responsibility. It had an overwhelming effect. Everyone present carried back a lasting message that his art brought to light. Over and above, he created an outreach programme at the Waterfront with performances by leading dancers and musicians, dialogues between important stakeholders of society, to create an inclusive sensibility to his art’s message. His environmental art movement had imbibed clay as its medium in 2013, in South Africa, where he first laid out a shrinking river, with inverted earthen lamps as droplets of water, at the floor of the National Museum, Pretoria. And he has built a formidable legacy of his art since then, addressing pressing global issues of sustainable development, water and climate change.

His ‘excavations in hymns of clay’ series and his ‘arth – art for earth’ project are moving; the likes of which should equal, if not stand out, amidst the highest standards of quality in the international art world. And in the annals of history. His transformation of ‘chillam’ into ‘Rain’ and ‘Beehives’ and inverting the earthen lamp into a droplet of water to form the ‘River’, stand testimony to his power of thought, ideas, genius and his artistic brilliance. People have praised his innovations and the way he takes his art to the masses, the way his art embraces open sylvan spaces, trees, as well as architecture.

Manav is truly unique. And so is his art. His contribution to our great nation’s art and culture landscape is unquestionable. I congratulate him on his twenty-five-year retrospective and wish him all success in his future endeavors.

March 2012 | Exotica | Manav Gupta’s contribution to INDO-BHUTANESE Relations Strokes of Harmony | Navneet Mendiratta. | Page 54,55,56,57. Pioneer, Exotica. RNI No. DELENG/2006/18084