Forbidden love

Daring art

Bhupen Khakhar blended together various traditions in his work and became the symbol of a rave new world. Giridhar Khasnis remembers one of India’s leading modern painters.

“Imagine a sequence of dream visions drawn by David Hockney, coloured by Howard Hodgkin, and choreographed by Marc Chagall,” wrote art critic Alfred Hicling (The Guardian / October 31, 2002). “That gives only the mildest taste of the rich masala of flavours flung into the pot by India’s leading modern painter, Bhupen Khakhar.”

One among the most important artists of post-Independence era, Khakhar, who passed away 10 years ago, was internationally known during his lifetime. His one-man shows in Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Vancouver, Manchester, New Delhi and Mumbai, were critically acclaimed.

In 1992, he was invited to participate in ‘Documenta 9’, directed by Jan Hoet, and became the first Indian artist to be invited. In 2003, a career retrospective of his work was held at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai. Another retrospective was mounted in 2002-3 at the Reina Sofia National Art Center in Madrid; the show subsequently travelled to the Lowry in Salford, UK and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin and Germany.

Bhupen, whose work was included in major international exhibitions and numerous group shows worldwide, received several honours including the Padma Shri (1984); the Asia Cultural Council Fellowship, New York (1986) and the Prince Claus Award (2000).

Largely self-taught, Khakhar, who worked proficiently with oil, watercolour and gouache, died on August 8, 2003 in Baroda, aged 69; the cause was prostate cancer.

Writing his obituary in The Independent, painter and author Timothy Hyman described Khakhar as a man of exceptional courage and generosity, of radiant charm and mischievous humour, who became celebrated for his startling, visionary images of homosexual love. Hyman, who first met the Indian artist in 1976, later penned his book Bhupen Khakhar (Artist Monograph), which was published by Mapin Publishing in 2006.

From accountancy to art

Interestingly, Khakhar trained himself to become a certified chartered accountant, and decided on a career change only in 1962, when he was 28. He is said to have been influenced by the works of Henri Rousseau, Brueghel, David Hockney and early Italian Renaissance painting. He also developed a deep understanding of Indian modernism, Rajput miniature painting, popular religious art and film posters.

“Khakhar blends together in his work various traditions — eastern and western — with complete naturalness, and in doing so becomes the symbol of a new world,” observed Enrique Juncosa, director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and curator of the artist’s retrospective in Madrid.

Even as he opened up to many influences, Khakhar’s life and work became most intrinsically linked to his sexual identity. Initially, he was ashamed of his sexuality; and hid the fact that he was homosexual. “Up to 1975, I felt that if my friends knew I was gay, I would commit suicide.”

It was only after an eye-opening trip to London in 1979, and the death of his mother in 1980, that he came out of his shell and explicitly incorporated the theme of sexuality in his work while sharing his own personal experiences. In his best –— considered to be provocative — paintings, Khakhar presented himself as a gay lover as well as a loved one.
One of his important works titled You Can’t Please All (1981) was a multi-layered composition brought to life by a life-size naked figure (Khakhar himself) standing in the balcony and observing the silent drama being enacted in the street below.

“The narrative element is extremely important in Khakhar’s work,” observes Hicling. “It is as though the years of self-imposed silence have given way to a lifetime’s worth of storytelling. You Can’t Please All, which depicts a disrobed man standing alone while looking out over his fellow countrymen, suggests the artist’s own role in present-day India.”

His earlier works like Janata Watch Repairing (1972) or Man Eating Jalebee (1974) or Man With Bouquet of Plastic Flowers (1975) were subtle in their expression and laced with narrative humour and critical irony, while his later works became more explicit.

Hicling explains that to a sense of hard-won liberation: something that was once a sorrowful secret was now exposed for everyone to see. “His paintings depict awkward sexual moments experienced privately but often set directly against the daily occurrences of a disapproving society, as in Two Men in Banaras (1982) embracing against a background of a typical village going about its business. They appear to go undiscovered by their neighbours, but they are poignantly conspicuous to the painting’s audience.” One of his most fêted paintings, Yayati, was created in 1987 and showed two openly cavorting male figures.

Critics have observed that Khakhar’s images were highly introspective and displayed moments of vulnerability and tenderness; and even as they exposed the complexities of love, lust, loneliness, aging, alienation, anxiety and middle-class hypocrisy, there was not a hint of anger or reproach. Khakhar chose his protagonists carefully; they were not heroes or macho studs but usually unexceptional, feeble, wrinkled, elderly men, with drooping shoulders and flaccid organs. His paintings were also brought to life by a candid portrayal of traders, tailors, barbers, watch repairers and other people culled out from daily life and urban streets. He also depicted animals and objects with veneration, objectivity and subtle humour. In doing all these, Khakhar was daringly and elegantly celebrating the life of ordinary people, particularly those of homosexuals.

Taboo themes

“My interest is something which is around me, something which is part of my life, the things that I see,” said Khakhar. “Most artists don’t do these subjects as they are taboo, and I think, let me do it…what is happening in India — social rejection — did happen once in USA and Europe. The police in all societies have beaten up gays and lesbians. For me, there is nothing unnatural about homosexuality.”

He would also recall how difficult it was to handle a theme which was taboo. “I tried to explore and represent the world of homosexuals as I knew and understood it. Now I feel amused, but at that time I felt very pressurised because in India there are hardly any painters doing gay subjects. At first, the galleries didn’t like them. Some removed my work from their walls saying that young people would see and they would get bad ideas about sex.”

Sadly, by the turn of the century, Khakhar was battling with cancer and was subjected to prolonged radiation therapy. His final paintings like Beauty is Skin Deep Only (2001), Bullet Shot in Head (2002) and Is It Flower? were dark and reflected his own premonitions of death. “The influence of Francis Bacon seems to lurk behind the Indian artist’s latest portraits, in which faces ooze with blood and entrails,” wrote art critic Marek Bartelik. “Made after Khakhar was diagnosed with cancer, these works reflect on mortality but also suggest that sexual phantasmagorias mirror the tragic and often violent facts of life.”