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Lot Essay
Bhupen Khakhar's unique and perceptive works have made him one of India's most revered contemporary artists. His international acclaim has seen his paintings exhibited across the world, with solo shows at museums and galleries in Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, Vancouver, Delhi and Mumbai, to name a few. Khakhar's portraits of middle-class India are characterized by their complex spatial arrangements, bold use of color and dark humor.
The implicit male imagery of a bathing man reveals the artist's own quiet wit that permeates much of his work. Homoeroticism takes on a significant import in Khakhar's oeuvre post-1980. His extended stay in Europe, his friendship with David Hockney and Sir Howard Hodgkin and his mother's death alleviated his concerns about opening up to his homosexuality. In his book on Khakhar, Timothy Hyman points out that the artist often associated sex with water. This particular work is a sly exploration of a theme that dominated Khakhar's later body of work.
The implicit male imagery of a bathing man reveals the artist's own quiet wit that permeates much of his work. Homoeroticism takes on a significant import in Khakhar's oeuvre post-1980. His extended stay in Europe, his friendship with David Hockney and Sir Howard Hodgkin and his mother's death alleviated his concerns about opening up to his homosexuality. In his book on Khakhar, Timothy Hyman points out that the artist often associated sex with water. This particular work is a sly exploration of a theme that dominated Khakhar's later body of work.