Lot 90: CHINTAN UPADHYAY (Indian, B. 1972)

CHINTAN UPADHYAY (Indian, B. 1972) Smart Alec signed 'Chintan' and dated '2006' (on the base) painted fiberglass and wooden base 157.5 x 86.4 x 95.2 cm. (62 x 34 x 37 1/2 in.) Executed in 2006 unique

86.4 x 95.2 cm.

Sarjan Art Gallery, Vadodara, Mutants, Sorry does not matter anymore, 2005

Sarjan Art Gallery, Mutants, Sorry doesnot matter anymore, Vadodara, 2005 (illustrated, p. 58). Enrico Navarra, Made by Indians, Paris, France, 2007 (another example illustrated, p. 530-531).

Sarjan Art Gallery, Vadodara, India Acquired from the above by the present owner Private collection, Paris, France

Our new world of transgenic realities and virtual possibilities, hologrammatic existences and laser images, photo-coagulative tissue fixing, in vitro fertilisations and ex vivo zygote building, possibilities of manoeuvring and choreographing realities has made it possible to have a new order for the world. What is this new order is precisely the contestation that Chintan wants to put forward . The new order has to be necessarily viewed in the context of late capitalist consumerist paradise, that we are part of , as a players and as viewers simultaneously. Hyperreality is the new order of the real , or 'imitation' is the new real, is the polemic that he offers through his 'Smart Alec' sculptures. Chintan's paintings and sculptures are painted designed babies, what he calls the "Smart Alecs", their bodies wearing extracts from Rajasthan and Mughal miniature paintings, in many works highlighting the typical 'Kamsutra' images, as a underlying motif of the works. 'by Sanjeev Khandekar, Visual Artist, Poet & Writer Lives & Works in Mumbai' .