Artist Neeraj Gupta’s Makrana marble sculpture at Bikaner House sparks dialogue

Artist Neeraj Gupta’s sculpture titled, As the wind rises, installed at the Bikaner House is carved out of a single stone, the timeless pink Makrana marble. At a glance it tells you how the sculptor has transcended conventional boundaries to give a new dimension to Indian sculpting forms. His work of art has the ability to communicate.

What is interesting is the solo sculpture strategically placed in the open courtyard near the entrance of Gate No. 2, makes for a full exhibition. Visitors stop by the 10-feet tall artwork weighing 4.2 tonnes, either out of curiosity or fascinated by its flowing lines.

“Art is fundamentally subjective. The intent is to enable people appreciate and remember a work of passion,” says Neeraj, who is also the president of Delhi Art Society.

Pink Makrana marble from Nagaur district of Rajasthan, is not an easy material to work on. Neeraj’s sculpture shows how Indian sculptural traditions have come of age and need global platforms to showcase the evolution.

The idea for the uplifting artwork came to Neeraj a year ago when he felt the displacement of the living and the organic from civilisation would soon go too far with the development of tools and machine-like minds. Good art is not descriptive but a carrier of culturally distilled emotions and open to multiple interpretations, he says. His sculpture at the base has undulating curves that gradually merge into intertwined formations at the upper level.

“They embody the sense of motion and churning — a metaphor for the eternal processes of creation, evolution, and transformation; the curving lines flow into each other and expand into a composition rich in rhythm and resonance,” says Neeraj of his work that took him eight months to complete.

To some viewers, the sculpture evokes the cosmic churning of energies; to others, the harmony of contrasts, or the unity in diversity. The abstract yet organic form provokes thought, reflection, and dialogue.

The sculptor has deliberately combined the natural texture roughly chiselled in parts with laboriously polished surface to break the monotony and bring out the multi-layered emotions depicted in the stone. “It is a contemporary exploration of form, movement, and meaning to enhance the contemplative character,” he says.

Silent but imposing, the sculpture stands as a symbol of creativity and a reminder of the timeless dialogue between tradition and modernity, harmony and continuity that shape Indian art.

The sculpture will be at Bikaner House for a year. What was hitherto an empty spot is now proposing new worlds to the visitors compelling them to pause and think from mundane to something deeper. As Neeraj concludes, “I like to put an idea out there and let viewers take it however they wish to in that moment.’