SUBODH GUPTA AND BHARTI KHER THE ‘COMMON’ CANVAS

‘India has many couples who are artists and they have fascinating and strong partnerships while having two wildly divergent and strong personalities. We aren’t so different’
—Bharti Kher

y first meal ever with Bharti Kher and Subodh Gupta (and many such meals were to follow, over the years), was in a small flat in what was then the scrubland of Gurgaon. Out of nothing and amidst racing crowds of tumbleweed, their toasty flat in a soaring monolith could literally be found by the near ambrosial waft of delicious nosh. Over time, the couple moved to grander residences, but the feeling of warmth, of sharing and generosity never changed. Never has there been a moment of hubris or arrogance for such successful artists and the success, anyone will confirm, is extraordinary. Consider this; for the England-born Bharti, from a small first show at the Squires Gallery in the faraway Newcastle-on-Tyne in the UK to stellar shows at Nature Morte, the