KRISHEN KHANNA | BROODING FIGURE

Acquired from Gallery Chemould, Bombay, 1975

Thence by descent

Born in 1925 in Lyallpur, Punjab, Krishen Khanna is one of South Asia’s most eminent modern masters. Having worked in banking for fourteen years, Khanna is mostly self-taught, and took up the artistic profession full-time only in his late thirties. He emigrated with his family from Pakistan to India just days before Partition, and he befriended members of the Progressive Artists’ Group while living and working in Bombay. Faithful to painting and drawing throughout his career, Khanna’s work is primarily figurative, and forms, according to Gayatri Sinha, a ‘powerful psychological engagement’ with ‘the shifting and unfolding theatre of human relationships.’ (G. Sinha, Krishen Khanna: The Embrace of Love, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, 2005, p. 6)

In 1969, Khanna began a series of works on Che Guevara that can be seen to form part of a broader theme of marginalisation in his work. Images with a focus on death and suffering continue into his work of the early 1970s, reflecting the turbulence of the times, in part inspired by the Bangladesh war. In the current lot, the shrouded figure with furrowed brow is afforded a quiet dignity by the artist. The tender attention he grants the subject demonstrates both Khanna’s respect and his incredible mastery over the human form. 'Krishen's phase of involvement with the theme of social realism coincided with his activist period… Those that seldom attract a second glance, the non-persons of the Indian streets, become Krishen's unlikely heroes… There is a marked change from the lyrical paintings of his early years to something approaching an obsession with brutality in public life.' (G. Sinha, Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography, New Delhi, 2001, p. 114)