Untitled

Bhupen Khakhar remains one of the bravest artists for opening up about his sexual preference and identity when most people found it impossible to do so. Though he began painting fairly late in his career, his work portrayed ironic depictions of social types and mocked the tastes and aspirations of the Indian middle class. A chartered accountant by profession, Khakhar moved from Bombay to Baroda in the Sixties to study art criticism at the Faculty of Fine Arts at M. S. University, and spent the rest of his career as an artist in that invigorating city. This watercolour is a snapshot of a temple in the early hours of the morning when devotees throng it for worship; the main figure of the painting, too, is arriving with a flower to offer the deity.