Ahmedabad Connection Of Krishna Hotel – Bhupen Khakhar’s Rs 4 Crore Painting
World-famous Gujarati painter Bhupen Khakhar’s oil painting titled “Krishna Hotel” will be auctioned on October 26 at Sotheby’s, London. According to Sotheby’s, the estimated value of the painting, which has not been seen in public since 1972, ranges from £ 200,000 (Rs. 2 crores) to £ 400,000 (Rs. 4 crore) but is expected to fetch even more during the live auction.
“Krishna Hotel”, depicting middle-class Indians having tea and snacks on a table in a tea shop has a significant place in Bhupen Khakhar’s art journey. Khakhar left his job at a chartered accountant’s firm after pursuing commerce for graduation to follow art. The painting marks the beginning of his later famous “trade series”, in which the working class of India, which was invisible in the field of art, suddenly became visible through these paintings. Another picture in the series, “De-Lux Tailors”, sold for 11.1 million (Rs 11 crore) in 2017 through Sotheby’s.
Christopher Benninger, a friend of Bhupen Khakhar and a Pune-based Native American architect, bought the painting at a 1972 auction at the New Order Bookshop in Ahmedabad. The exhibition was organized by shop owner Dinkar Trivedi to help Bangladeshi refugees in India at the time.
Bhupen Khakhar was India’s first painter to come out as gay. Recipient of Padma Shri in 1984, he was a big name in Indian contemporary painting who gained international fame.