Bhupen Khakhar Biography 
Bhupen Khakhar was a leading artist in Indian contemporary art from Mumbai. He gained international recognition for his works and throughout his relatively short career Khakhar flaunted the established mainstream through playful and unusual pictorial delineations and narrative incidents. Khakhar was the first Indian artist to make creative use of India’s much undervalued, hybrid visual culture. In the year 2000, Khakhar was honored with the Prince Claus Award at the Royal Palace of Amsterdam. He won the Asian Council's Starr Foundation Fellowship in 1986 and Indian government honoured him with Padma Shri in 1984. His works are now exhibited at the British Museum, The Tate Gallery, London and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. His works are often regarded as references to Indian mythology and mythological themes.
He was born in Mumbai on 10 March 1934. His childhood days were spent in Khetwadi region of Mumbai, with 3 siblings and parents. His father, Parmanand, was an engineer and died due to heavy drinking when Bhupen was only 4 years old. Bhupen was the first of his family to attend the University of Bombay, where he completed graduation. Khakhar worked as an accountant for many years and pursued his artistic career at his free time.
Bhupen was a self-trained artist. He started his artistic career at a relatively late in his life and his works were figurative in nature. A self-professed homosexual, the problems of gender definitions and gender identity were major themes of his work. Khakhar’s oil paintings were often narrative and autobiographical. He started his solo exhibitions by 1965 and by 1980’s, he conducted exhibitions in major cities of the world. He died in Baroda on 8 August 2003.
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Updated: March 01, 2014
