Important Notice

In the 1960s, Bhupen Khakhar moved to Baroda to study Arts Criticism at the Faculty of Fine Arts at M S University. Around this time, Baroda had become the centre for contemporary Indian art, and the city would prove crucial to Khakhar's development as an artist. In this rich artistic environment, Khakhar was exposed to the legacy of the Baroda School of artists, including G R Santosh, K G Subramanyan, N S Bendre and Jyoti Bhatt. He also met... In the 1960s, Bhupen Khakhar moved to Baroda to study Arts Criticism at the Faculty of Fine Arts at M S University. Around this time, Baroda had become the centre for contemporary Indian art, and the city would prove crucial to Khakhar's development as an artist. In this rich artistic environment, Khakhar was exposed to the legacy of the Baroda School of artists, including G R Santosh, K G Subramanyan, N S Bendre and Jyoti Bhatt. He also met British Pop artists Derek Boshier and Jim Donovan-the latter playing a vital role in introducing Khakhar to Western Pop Art, which the artist soon adapted to his own practice.

Beginning in 1965, Khakhar worked on collages which included elements of symbolism and rituals associated with different religious practices. "The first sustained phase... related to two main sources; the icon-images of wayside temples and hand-painted shop signs. There is a long tradition in India of capturing an elusive divinity or propitiating a spirit by act of anointing..." (Geeta Kapur, In Quest of Identity: Art and Indigenism in Post-Colonial Culture with Special Reference to Contemporary Indian Painting, Baroda: Vrishchik Publication, 1973, online) In the present lot, Khakhar alludes to a temple by enclosing a familiar vermillion-coloured embodiment of a temple deity within neatly defined colour blocks. Surrounding it is a smattering of handprints and scripts invoking the figure of Rama. Such abstract and modern works, rooted in referenced traditions, brought Khakhar considerable recognition in later years.

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