Thukral & Tagra

Nature Morte, New Delhi

Tokyo, Tokyo Art Fair, 3 April - 6 April 2008

Good overall condition.
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Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra work collaboratively in a wide variety of media including painting, sculpture, installation, video, graphic and product design, websites, music and fashion. Their subject matter is drawn from contemporary lifestyles and are inspired as much by fashion and advertising as by art history. They combine cutting-edge computer graphics with retro-styled accessories and are among the new generation of young Indian artists who defy easy classification.

'Thukral and Tagra may most resemble the Japanese wunderkind Takashi Murakami, he of the cartoon figures that cavort from paintings to designer handbags to mass produced souvenirs to precious Jewelry. What all these artists share is a celebratory attitude towards their cultural products, foregrounding that act of making over the act of editing, preferring production over theorization.' (Thukral & Tagra, Nature Morte and Bose Pacia gallery exhibition catalogue, 2007, p. 7).

The current work, painted in 2008, brings together a number of these themes to present a large billboard styled image that comments on consumerism and the commoditization of art. The bungalow featured in the painting is depicted like an advertisement from a real estate catalogue. The foliage and flowers that frame the home give nod to the rosy way in which homes are styled for consumer use. The language of real estate advertising is applied to this painting, and the effect is to mischievously make one conscious of the collusion between the art market and the retail industry.

Their local environment serves as the inspiration for this work. New Delhi and especially Gurgaon, the area where they live, is known for its opulence. Houses are enormous and built in a very haphazard and eclectic style. These bungalows and country houses are symbols of wealth and status, while remaining aspirational to everyone else with desires for a better life.