Important Notice

Painted in 1994, the present lot is typical of Bhupen Khakhar's style during this period, yet unusual in its composition. A triangular canvas caps a rectangular one, creating a painting shaped like a roofed house, or a stained glass window in a cathedral. He invokes notions of home and the spiritual life, by the simple manipulation of accepted canvas shapes. The scene is divided into two parts physically, with the upper portion consisting of... Painted in 1994, the present lot is typical of Bhupen Khakhar's style during this period, yet unusual in its composition. A triangular canvas caps a rectangular one, creating a painting shaped like a roofed house, or a stained glass window in a cathedral. He invokes notions of home and the spiritual life, by the simple manipulation of accepted canvas shapes. The scene is divided into two parts physically, with the upper portion consisting of built forms, homes and buildings with triangular roofs and the lower half populated by figures along the water. Khakhar likely intended the present lot to be set on the ghats of the Ganga river, with its many connotations of faith, religion, and spirituality.

Khakhar drew inspiration from the 14th century pre-Renaissance painters of Siena, as well as Indian miniatures, incorporating their narrative compositions and technique. Like them, Khakhar often used saturated colour, and his earlier works were bold harmonies of Burnt Sienna and Prussian Blue. Khakhar was known to begin painting his canvases with one flat expanse of a single colour, and then gradually paint additional elements on this base, followed by a "pigment-brushed" finish, creating a silken sheen. In the present lot, Khakhar departs slightly from the brighter tones of the previous decade, retaining a dark blue palette offset by earth tones to depict the narrative scene. He was particularly taken by Ambrogio Lorenzetti's The Well Governed City (1338), a fourteen metre long panoramic fresco at the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, which he first saw in 1976. "Lorenzetti created a sequence of spaces which allowed the spectator to penetrate within the medieval town and its workings... this spatial continuum was paralleled in the pictures attempted by Khakhar... he constructs each as a microcosm, for us to enter and wander in." (Timothy Hyman, Bhupen Khakhar, Mumbai: Chemould Publication and Arts, 1998, p. 2)

According to Hyman, the artist associated this particular type of a landscape - set against a water body surrounded by lush vegetation - as a symbolic means of exploring his sexuality. Khakhar publicly acknowledged his homosexuality after a visit to England in 1979, and his works thereafter embraced the progressive and bold politics of his life as a gay activist and artist. He found himself "speaking for a class and a world hitherto unregarded, unrecorded. The most striking change was that his art became explicitly confessional, as often as not including a self-portrayal - sometimes approaching life-size, and frequently naked... the self is always juxtaposed to the world." (Hyman, p. 68) The riverfront in the present lot serves as the vehicle for his personal explorations and commentaries on societal norms.

The dark background in the present lot is punctuated by men in flesh tones, embracing, frolicking in the water, or simply sitting comfortably next to each other, along a riverfront. In these real or imagined interactions, the artist often included himself, white-haired and bespectacled. With this deliberate act of subversion, and simultaneously confession, "Khakhar takes away the moral responsibility to censure anyone's desire or sexual preference. The conspicuous nakedness of the male figures is the result of the painter having peeled his eyes to see the world as he wishes to..." (Geeta Kapur, "Bhupen Khakhar: Lightness of Being," A Tribute to Bhupen Khakhar, Mumbai: Tao Art Gallery, 2004, p. 3) In the triangular upper half, he paints a village scene, bringing home, community and the individual into focus in this complex, multi-layered work. Khakhar has received increasing acclaim in recent years for his ability to address difficult social and political issues with a rare honesty and openness.

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