Important Notice

THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers said, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."

The blind men had no idea what an elephant was. They decided to go touch the elephant and find out for themselves what it was. Each of them touched a different part of the elephant.

"The elephant is a pillar," said the first man who... THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers said, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."

The blind men had no idea what an elephant was. They decided to go touch the elephant and find out for themselves what it was. Each of them touched a different part of the elephant.

"The elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg.

"No, it is a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.

"It is a tree trunk," said the third man who touched the elephant's trunk.

"It is a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the elephant's ear.

"It is a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the elephant's belly.

"It is a pipe," said the sixth man who touched the elephant's tusk.


They all began to argue about what an elephant was, till a wise man explained that they were all correct because an elephant was made up of each one of those parts.

Bhupen Khakhar often deployed his art as a medium for subtle, but emphatic social commentary. He refers to the allegory of the "The Blind Men and the Elephant" in the present lot. Procession (Gajagraha) is a visual rendition of the Buddhist fable, with the blind men placed on or around the elephant, trying to comprehend what they can't see, by the act of touching it. The bodies of humans in various stages of embrace or solitude flow through an arch-shaped frame over the elephant.

Khakhar's painting extrapolates the allegory of the "The Blind Men and the Elephant" beyond its basic moral: it depicts the tension and conflict between incongruous cultures who do not understand each other. Khakhar was known for basing his subjects around a narrative structure, and in the '90s he worked with even larger formats to articulate his progressive politics. At its heart was the individual, and for a significant period in the '80s, he explored the gender divide and sexual preferences. He often placed himself as the subject of such works, blending the personal and the political.

Over time, his images became simplified and reduced, as seen in the present lot: "Translucent, unmixed colors-air blues, pinks, greens and yellows, sometimes against a blaze of untouched white background-appear brushed on in one shot, without overlays or revisions, and the forms seem free to situate themselves in the world without anxiety, without gravity, in an instant of momentous clarity." (Kamala Kapoor, "A Subversive Rasa", Bhupen Khakhar: A Retrospective, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, 2003, p.18)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site