LONDON: Khakhar Bhupen oil painting titled “Krishna Hotel” which describes ordinary Indians who have a snack and Chai at the cafe table that looked destroyed, which has not been seen in public since 1972, is expected to pick Crores when auctioned in London in London October.
The estimated price is £ 200,000 (Rs 2 Crore) up to £ 400,000 (Rs 4 Crore).
But it is expected to take more during direct auctions.
“Krishna Hotel” date at the time of the river in the artistic career of Khakhar born in Mumbai – the beginning of the “trade series”, where the Indian worker class, most of which are excluded from the realm of art, suddenly found a place for themselves in his paintings.
The first trade series works by the artist to appear on the open market, “De-Luxe Tailor”, sold in Sotheby in 2017 for £ 1.1 million (Rs 11 Crore).
“Krishna Hotel” has been in a collection of American architects and architects based on Pune Christopher Benninger, who have designed many of the most important buildings in South Asia, for almost half a century.
Benninger bought paintings immediately after being painted in 1972 at a small auction painting from the New Order bookstore in Ahmedabad.
The exhibition was held by shop owners, Trivedi Dinkar, to support Bangladesh refugees who flooded India at that time.
Khakhar was not known at that time but was a friend Benninger.
Benninger first traveled to India in the 1960s when he met a number of Baroda group artists, including Khakhar.
Khakar only made it into the international market in 2016 after the modern Tate and Benninger exhibition ignored the value of work until now.
“In 1972 I saw this painting as a radical porridge from boring modernism, lifeless, often geometric sweeping the world,” Benninger said.
The results will be used to make a non-profit foundation to support artists throughout South Asia.
“‘Hotel’ is a daily term used by Indians who work to describe a cafe, especially in small cities, where the middle class and workers appear,” explained Ishrat Kanga, head of modern South Asian art contemporary in London Sotheby.
“Radio, luxury at the time, had the pride of the place above the cafe owner, next to a framed photo of one of the ancestors of the owner, a typical characteristic of the middle class aesthetics.” “‘Krishna Hotel’ appeared at the first sight of social painting, but was overwhelmed by a sense of isolation and troubling loneliness, with physical space that divided hotel customers and their failed expressions,” Kanga said.
Painting Bhupen Khakhar from the Indian Work Class Drinking Chai is expected to pick up Crores at the Sotheby auction
