Important Notice

Bhupen Khakhar made a declaration in 1978: "Human beings in their local environment, climate, provincial society; this should be the ultimate goal of the artist." (Timothy Hyman, Bhupen Khakhar, Mumbai: Chemould Publication and Arts and Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 1998, p. 78) The present lot, painted around the same time, depicts an imagined landscape portraying its entire topography as a linear map, with land, sky and water... Bhupen Khakhar made a declaration in 1978: "Human beings in their local environment, climate, provincial society; this should be the ultimate goal of the artist." (Timothy Hyman, Bhupen Khakhar, Mumbai: Chemould Publication and Arts and Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 1998, p. 78) The present lot, painted around the same time, depicts an imagined landscape portraying its entire topography as a linear map, with land, sky and water body all merging into one plane. At the centre is a cluster of temples, connecting to individual households and private scenes-narrative vignettes that Khakhar often utilised in his paintings. Similarly, floating figures in the air and river are figurative elements typical of Khakhar's later works.

The present lot once belonged in the personal collection of the renowned architect, Dr. Balkrishna Doshi. Doshi met Khakhar in the 1980s and invited him to do a solo show at the Kanoria Centre for Arts and Hutheesing Visual Arts Centre in Ahmedabad. He wrote about why this painting appealed to him then: "Amongst the exhibits, I noticed an unusual narrative painted on glass. I was struck by the comprehensive way in which it depicted the entire life of a peninsula... Bhupen had transformed the well-structured traditional narration of the traditional Nathadwara pichhwai style of painting into a free-wheeling architectural landscape. I saw, in it, a young-newly married couple flying in the sky, overlooking the countryside: a village with temples, canteens, houses and meandering streets surrounded by river and a bridge... Though freely dispersed, they appear to connect around their motherland, narrating stories, associations of timeless, ongoing life."

This is an unusual Khakhar work with an architectural focus on bringing the life of the city to the fore. Built forms such as buildings and bridges are treated on equal par with natural elements such as trees and the river. The combination of fluid paint and linear detailing makes this a rare work in Khakhar's oeuvre.

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