Bhupen Khakhar

Chris Dercon is director of Tate Modern. Nada Raza is assistant curator at Tate Modern.

Bhupen Khakhar (1934-2003) was active in India from the late 1960s. A gentle radical, his luminous paintings addressed issues of class, gender, and sexuality with sensitive, often tragicomic nuance. This publication presents a fresh take on his artistic, social, and spiritual interests. Significant essays on Khakhar's artistic influences are accompanied by focused responses to key works by leading writers, curators, and artists. Khakhar's unique voice is revealed in excerpts from the last interview before his death in 2003, and in a facsimile reproduction of the artist's book Truth Is Beauty and Beauty Is God, out of print since 1972. With personal and touching contributions by those who knew him, this richly illustrated publication is an essential reference to one of the most compelling and unique voices in twentieth-century art, as well as a significant contribution to the field of international modernism.