Contents
Bhupen Khakhar
Painting ordinary Indian lives and openly exploring gay identity.
Man with Bouquet of Plastic Flowers · You Can’t Please All
- Born
- 10 March 1934
- Birthplace
- Mumbai, India
- Died
- 8 August 2003
More people
Bhupen Khakhar
Bhupen Khakhar was a Baroda-based painter whose narrative scenes combined everyday surroundings, personal experience and popular imagery.
Early life
Commercial studies
Trained in commerce and qualified as a chartered accountant.
Art alongside accounts
Took evening art classes before moving to Baroda to study art criticism.
Career
- 1965
First solo exhibition
Began exhibiting independently while continuing accountancy work.
- 1969–1973
Vrishchik
Co-edited the literary and art magazine with Gulam Mohammed Sheikh.
- 1979
Teaching in England
Worked at Bath Academy of Art and stayed with Howard Hodgkin.
- 2002
Madrid retrospective
His work received a retrospective at the Reina Sofía museum.
Selected work
Man with Bouquet of Plastic Flowers
Placed an ordinary figure at the centre of a vividly coloured scene.
You Can’t Please All
Combined a naked balcony figure with a fable unfolding below.
Phoren Soap
Joined storytelling and etching in an artist’s book.
Beyond work
Gujarati writing
Wrote short stories and the play Mojila Manilal.
Artistic friendships
Maintained a long friendship with Howard Hodgkin and painted Salman Rushdie.
Sources & photo credit
Wikipedia biography and references ↗Further biography and career ↗Photo: cea + from The Netherlands. CC BY 2.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
