Niteen Gupte's work is non-figurative and conceptual. His initial black and white, pen and ink drawings (in the 70s) were much influenced by Alfred Kubin, the Austrian illustrator at the beginning of the 20th Century: abstracted, faces, mystical and anxious, spun together with a net of millions of free-flowing lines. The figures soon disappeared, as the problems of language became one of his major concerns: the language as a medium of expression as well as a medium of exploitation, the language that might sustain the status quo or can invade the unknown. In the search of his own language and style, here he thanks Richard Hirschbaeck, a painter from Salzburg, for his advice - he concentrated on one particular line, a line that Kandinski would classify as a "free wave-like" (freie Wellenartige). The relative density of the net of these lines make up for the visual aesthetic of the surfaces: he called them Flaechengedichte; a self-coined German word that means "surface poem" as well as "surface concentration": the surfaces come into being due to more or less concentration of lines and they do not narrate anything nor they are dramatic, they are lyrical. They express not only a certain atmosphere; however, they play with the basic visual concepts, with the polarities like line-surface/flatness-depth. This is a concept on that Gupte has been working on till today. Other graphical elements (like dots, strokes, straight lines) and the colour were introduced later to enlarge the sphere of the visual experience.

A non figurative work need not be devoid of the social context. It could be in fact more "concrete" than the figurative which necessarily "abstracts" the natural phenomena in terms of visual images. The minimalist technique developed by Niteen Gupte enables him also to take a stance towards the immediate social reality. Thus during the riots in Dresden he installed cobble-stones dug out of the streets to demonstrate the futility of such riots as well as to protest against the suppression of the wrath of the unemployed youth. And, in the framework of a UNESCO supported international fresco project he isolated the "paan"-stains on Indian walls not only to criticize the environmental situation in wake of globalization but also to point at the different cultural traditions and their relative justification.

• 1959

• Educated (Literature/Arthistory) in Mumbai and Vienna

• 2003 : Spit red! (Spucke, rot!). Installation, Gallery at the Alaun Square, Dresden
• 2001 : Discovering Colours and Surfaces, Artists Centre, Mumbai
• 2001 : Stones are Stones and are not Stones (Steine sind Steine und sind es nicht). Installation, Gallery at the Alaun Square, Dresden
• 2001 : How obvious is the Hybrid (Die Selbstverstaendlichkeit des Hybriden), Tower of the Luther Church, Cologne
• 1998 : Surface Poems (Flaechengedichte), Kunstraum 76a, Cologne
• 1997 : Surface Poems (Flaechengedichte), Allerweltshaus, Cologne
• 1996, 1988 : Surface Poems (Flaechengedichte), AAI-Gallery Karl Strobl, Vienna
• 1995 : Surface Poems (Flaechengedichte), Gallery arting, Cologne
• 1994 : Surface Poems (Flaechengedichte), Gallery B. Roessler, Munich
• 1987 : Surface Poems (Flaechengedichte), Dedeke, Werl/West Germany
• 1985 : Surface Poems (Flaechengedichte), Gallery Taubenkobel, Burgenland / Austria
• 1983 : Confessing one's own Stupidity (Bekennung zur Kopflosigkeit), Gallery Malacate, Vienna

• 2000 : Nahtstellen, Museum Blankenberg, Blankenberg/NRW, Germany
• 2000 : Licht und Schatten, Aerztekammer, Cologne
• 1994 : Real Momentum - Wertzeichen, Automatenmuseum, Zurich
• 1984 : Annual Exhibition, Gallery Old Art New Art, Vienna

• 9,10 August 2003 : Andrea Rook - Keine Angst vor Spucke, rot! Werke von Niteen Gupte in der Galerie am Alaunplatz, - in: Dresdner Neuste Nachrichten
• 2003 : Engelbert Broich : 2 Wandbilder auf 2 Kontinenten, - in: Junge Kunst, No. 55, Frechen
• 2003 : "Die Selbstverstaendlichkeit des Hybriden", -in: Wem gehoert die Welt?, ed. by Farbfieber e.V., Duesseldorf
• 2002 : Engelbert Broich: Schon 2 Graffitis im "Flaechengedicht", in : - Der Weg, 11, Duesseldorf
• 8 Nov. 2001 : Martin Graetz : Spuckwand in der Suedstadt spart Reise nach Indien, in : - tageszeitung (taz), Berlin-NRW
• 2001 : Werner Mueller (Dir.) : Kuenstler ueberschreiten Grenzen, VHS, 45 min., Cologne
• 27 Oct. 2001 : Nabil Hanano : Inspiration aus Betelnuss, in: - Koelner Rundschau, Cologne,
• 2001 : Sangita Jindal : Editorial, Art India, 6/2, Mumbai
• 07 Jan. 2001 : Gunvanti Balram : Kala Ghoda gets a touch of eau de Cologne, - in: The Times of India, Bombay
• 03 Jan. 2001 : Jasmin Shah Varma: Wall or Nothing, - in: Midday, Bombay,
• 02 Jan. 2001 : Sandesh Shinde : Discovering Colours and Surfaces. Review and Interview with N. Gupte (by Anjali Pathare), Sahyadri (DD2), News at 9.30 p.m.
• Since 2001 : Curator, Gallery at the Alaun Square (Galerie am Alaunplatz), Dresden, Reviews etc. (selection)
• Since 1993 : Lives in Germany (Cologne/Dresden/Leipzig)
• 1989-92 : India (Mumbai / Vadodara )
• 1989-1977 : Worked as an artist and academician in Austria
• Member of the National Association of German Artists, Fraction Cologne (BBK, Koeln)