PRODOSH DAS GUPTA | Egg Bird

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the  artist's family and is recorded in the Prodosh Das Gupta family archive as edition 1/9

Bombay, Taj Art Gallery, Taj Mahal Palace, Exhibition of Sculptures by Prodosh Das Gupta, 6 - 12 January, 1976 (marble version)

Exhibition of Sculptures by Prodosh Das Gupta, Exhibition Catalogue, Bombay, January 6 - 12 1976, item 15 (marble version), unpaginated

The surface of the sculpture is uneven and small losses are apparent underneath. Pitting and nicks are visible throughout which could be a result of the artist's casting process and there is also natural discolouration. The work is in very good overall condition, as viewed.
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Egg Bird, Das Gupta’s breath-taking sculpture from 1975, represents one of the most noteworthy contributions to the aesthetic and ideological development of 20th century Indian sculpture. This rare bronze, a signature trait of Das Gupta’s sculptural dialect provides a unique insight into his sophisticated thought process. Among the foremost Indian modernists from the post-colonial generation, he became an extremely influential figure in Indian art for his philosophy that a work of art needed to have "four elements of directness, spontaneity, vitality and microcosmic feeling", to be able to have a soul and meaning. (P. Das Gupta, Prodosh Das Gupta: Sculptures & Drawings, Ed. V. K. Jain, Kumar Gallery (P) Ltd., New Delhi, 2008, p. 22) Egg Bird was originally conceived as a sculpture in marble as well as bronze. Its marble version was executed and displayed during Das Gupta’s one-man show held at the Taj Art Gallery in the Taj Mahal Palace in Bombay in January of 1975. Egg Bird in its bronze form mimics the aesthetic of the marble version and still succeeds in translating his vision – this piece was made to withstand the elements, and like many of his works would have been intended to be scale models, to be re-cast at some point as a much grander outdoor installation that would have survived as an enduring symbol of Das Gupta’s psychologically engaging life’s work. Das Gupta explained that, “The egg is the embryonic stage of life. I visualised the theme of an egg from the womb of a white marble block to be hewn out and released into this world of woe and misery, corruption and deceit.” (P. Das Gupta, Prodosh Das Gupta: Sculptures & Drawings, Ed. V. K. Jain, Kumar Gallery (P) Ltd., New Delhi, 2008, p.82).

As one of India’s most important sculptors, Das Gupta was constantly trying to bridge the gap between tradition and modernity, and how to present tradition in its most contemporary form.