Just over a year ago, I got a call from Minty Art who are the administrative and marketing arm of artist, Raqib Shaw. The commission was to suspend a male model in order to provide working images for the development of a sculpture. I was delighted to discover that the job was less that a mile up the road in what used to be the Kennedy’s Sausage factory. The bronze sculpture for which my work was used is called ‘Moon Howlers’ (below). My suspensions were used to get realistic and accurate depictions of the human form in contorted falling poses.
Probably like many of you, I had never heard of Raqib. I clearly should have as he is something of a phenomenon. According to an article by, art historian and curator, Sharmistha Ray: “he first came into the public eye October 2007 when one of his paintings, a monumental triptych called Garden of Earthly Delights III sold for an incredible US$5.49 million at the Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Sale, making it the most expensive artwork by an Indian artist sold in an auction. It turned the then 33 year-old into an overnight sensation, catapulting him to the highest echelons of the international art world.” This only came to light after Googling his work which is breath-taking. The rich imagery combines fantasy, Indian religious iconography with acrylics, metallics and jewels and is undoubtedly influenced by his love of plants and family background as Kashmiri carpet-dealers. It looks very much as if his passion for bonsai was one of the inspirations for the piece in which I was involved. He has a fantastic collection in a huge covered patio at the rear of his studios and a sitting room that has so many plants it is more like a jungle with furniture.
As Raqib is notoriously reclusive, I have only just managed to find out about the finished sculpture now but apparently it went on show with other works of his at Pace Gallery, New York, in January. If you have a spare $2.5 million lying around and you need to update your décor, it might still be available. I can see I really should have insisted on a commission on the sale price rather than an hourly rate 🙂