Gagosian goes for Gupta

Art dealer Larry Gagosian is hoping to sign the Indian artist Subodh Gupta; the two met for talks late last year. The artist is currently represented by Peter Nagy of Nature Morte Gallery in New Delhi and Jack Shainman Gallery in New York. Mr Shainman declined to comment. Mr Nagy says: “We have a show planned with Gupta for the season of 2009-10, which will travel from New Delhi to Bombay to Calcutta. We will also have work by Subodh at Art Basel in June and hope to include him in other fairs in the future. But that will be the extent of my working with Subodh on the international level, regardless of who he is represented by in New York or Europe.” Gupta, the most successful contemporary artist from the subcontinent, has work in the collections of Charles Saatchi in London, and Marty Margulies in Miami, among several others. The artist’s Very Hungry God, 2006, a skull composed of metal pots, is on display in front of French billionaire François Pinault’s museum in Venice, the Palazzo Grassi (until July). According to one Indian dealer who asked to remain anonymous, Mr Gagosian is currently “chasing Gupta with a blank chequebook”. Gupta declined to comment while a spokeswoman for Mr Gagosian said that she “did not believe this to be correct”.