Brushstrokes of support
Art world steps in to help in Covid relief through online auctions
From celeb artist Subodh Gupta and biggie auction house Saffronart to smaller initiatives like online marketplace Chitrakar and the Vadehra art gallery, the community has joined hands to aid artists in need, including traditional craftspersons, and help fund Covid relief efforts across the country.
One such sale on June 1 will have on offer nine signature works by artist couple Bharti Kher and Subodh Gupta. “Watching the past few weeks unfold in India has been traumatic for every family. Almost all of us have been touched in one way or another by the unprecedented scale of the second Covid wave in India,” Kher said in a statement.
Through the online sale, the artists hope to raise `1 crore which will go towards supporting the ongoing relief efforts by two non-profit organisations — Hemkunt Foundation and Goonj.
Among the works on offer will be Kher’s ‘A Small World Together’ series. Extending her long standing artistic exploration of found objects and rituals within the everyday, the series superimposes bindis of different colours, shapes, and sizes onto existing world maps.
With the detailed maps as a base and the bindis suggesting certain patterns of movement, her works speak to the “intrinsic global connectivity of the ongoing crisis and of broader humanity,”, she said
Gupta’s works, done in his quintessential style, use everyday kitchen utensils to create a dialogue between the humble elements in domestic lives that have taken on an even greater importance through lockdowns.
His ‘A Bouquet of Flowers’, for instance, reinterprets the ordinarily short lifespan of flowers in stainless steel. “Art can’t change the world on its own but it can make it a kinder and more human place to live in. Our works are both witness to and a celebration of the value of the ordinary and everyday markers of human habit and daily ritual. In our small way we just wanted to help in this huge humanitarian effort that brings us all closer together in the spirit of sharing,” Gupta said in the statement.
Another upcoming fundraiser directed towards Covid relief is Mumbai-based auction house Prinseps’ Modern Art Sale scheduled
Through the online sale, the artists hope to raise`1 crore which will go towards supporting the ongoing relief efforts by two non-profit organisations —Hemkunt Foundation and Goonj.
Art can’t change the world on its own but it can make it a kinder and more human place to live in. In our small way we just wanted to help in this huge humanitarian effort that brings us all closer together in the spirit of sharing.
— SUBODH GUPTA,
Artist
in the second half of June.
Over the past year, the art world, like every other sector, has taken a big hit. While big galleries and established artists managed to stay afloat, traditional artisans were pushed to the brink of devastation. People from all walks of life stepped forward to help in any which way they could. And so did the art fraternity.