Important Notice

Starting out as a banker in Lahore, Krishen Khanna began to paint as an after-work hobby and exhibited his work intermittently through the 1940’s and 1950’s with the Bombay Art Society and later with the Progressives Artists group. It wasn’t until the early 1960’s however, that he took up painting as a full time profession.

“In a career that spans almost six decades his large body of work places him at the apex of engagement with... Starting out as a banker in Lahore, Krishen Khanna began to paint as an after-work hobby and exhibited his work intermittently through the 1940’s and 1950’s with the Bombay Art Society and later with the Progressives Artists group. It wasn’t until the early 1960’s however, that he took up painting as a full time profession.

“In a career that spans almost six decades his large body of work places him at the apex of engagement with everyday Indian life. How he mediates this engagement, the parables and play that he brings into view are the determinants of how we may read his paintings.” (Gayatri Sinha, Krishen Khanna, the embrace of love, Mapin Publishing, 2005. p.10)

The importance of this work derives from its reflective view on the artists concerns. While some of his ubiquitous bandwallahs practice their brass instruments to one side of the canvas, others, with an equally familiar dog, sip tea on the other side in a scene reminiscent of the artist’s dhaba series of works. Also lurking in the back is a hooded figure fraternizing with the old tea-shop waiter, familiar to viewers from the artist’s famous Christ cycle of canvases, particularly from works like “The Last Supper” and Khanna’s “Emmaus” paintings. The co-occurrence of these figures in the same canvas, in addition to being suggestive of self-introspection and cathartic expression, also point out the tie that binds them all – Khanna’s longstanding concern for the common man and his burdens.

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