Krishen Khanna (b. 1925)

Sotheby's New York, October 10, 1997, lot 24

Image-Beyond Image, Contemporary Indian Paintings from the Collection of Glenbarra Art Museum, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai, January-May 1997

Painting in overall very good condition. Thick robust application of oil paint on canvas. Color is deeper and richer than catalogue illustration.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

During the early 1980s, Krishen Khanna began a series of vibrant canvases now known as the Bandwalla (bandleader) series – a radical and exuberant departure from the spare, sun-baked palette of his earlier years. Working in his new studio in Garhi, Delhi, Khanna was inspired by the energy of the urban landscape surrounding him, and his oeuvre expanded from the austere neo-figuritivism of the 1960s and 70s into the dynamic expressionism which came to define his later work. The artist explains the inspiration of his immediate environment: "All great art has to be local. When I say local, I mean an artist has to draw from things near him so that a certain passion comes through in his paintings. At the same time, great art transcends the ordinary moment and strikes a moment in infinity." (Gayatri Sinha, Krishen Khanna, New Delhi, 2001, p.135).

Marching bands and their bandwallas are a common feature of North Indian wedding processions, and are a colonial import from the Imperial marching bands of the British Raj. Distinguished by their red uniforms and jaunty caps, and often joined by throngs of children and revelers banging pots and other improvised instruments, the ubiquitous bandwallas fill the streets and alleys during the wedding season. Gayatri Sinha explains: "[Khanna's] palette for this series is dominated by red: the red of their clothes, their flushed ruddy faces and the sanguine sense of energy that they exude ... The fact that he persisted with the subject of bandwallas for several years, in the thick impasto technique with a palette predominantly of pinks, white, red or gray, also confirmed his interest in the formal and contemplative rather than figurative aspects of his subject." (Ibid., p.135)