Beginning a few months after Bhupen’s death in August 2003 and continuing through the tenth anniversary of his passing other artists, gallerists, and curators have honored with him with group shows, individual paintings and prints, lectures and essays. In India I think Tao Gallery was the first formal show marking the first anniversary of his death, “A Tribute to Bhupen Khakhar” (8 August to 28 August 2004). The following year ( 29 August to 5 September), Gallery Chemould put on “Bhupen Among Friends.” Chemould had another show, “Aesthetic Bind: subject of Death,” (3 September to 3 October 2013) curated by India’s most important art critic, Geeta Kapur, who promoted and encouraged Bhupen early on and throughout his career. Gujarati intellectuals met 8 August 2013 in Ahmedabad to celebrate Bhupen’s visual art and writing. Galerie Mirchandani+Steinruecke organized “Touched by Bhupen” (29 November 2013 – 6 January 2014).
My collection contains only a tiny sample from these shows and from individual initiatives. It includes works by Bhupen’s friends and colleagues: Gulammohammed Sheikh, Vivan Sundaram, Nilima Sheikh, Madhvi Parekh, and the younger Anju Dodiya, Atul Dodiya, and Ram Rahman. (Nalini Malani is missing from my collection, but her friendship with Bhupen and her own style are reflected in Bhupen’s painting, “Lost Souls,” my first purchase in 1994.) Art from his wider circle of associates and admirers include works by Yusuf Arakkal, Pradeep R. Dalal, and Francesco Clemente.
In 2016 in connection with the Tate Modern retrospective there were two gallery shows: Sarjan Gallery in Vadodara, India had “Remembering Bhupen” with eight artists and Grosvenor Vadehra in London put on “Bhupen Khakhar and His Contemporaries India 1960 – 2016” with a dozen artists.