Important Notice

The present lot is a rare, early work by Krishen Khanna from a brief but artistically rich phase of his career, before he began painting his trademark bandwalla series. The early 1950s saw Khanna moving to Madras (now Chennai) with his wife and daughter, while working for Grindlays Bank. The slow tempo of the society and the calming rhythm of his day job contributed to a period of “personal contentment and greater lyricism than Krishen... The present lot is a rare, early work by Krishen Khanna from a brief but artistically rich phase of his career, before he began painting his trademark bandwalla series. The early 1950s saw Khanna moving to Madras (now Chennai) with his wife and daughter, while working for Grindlays Bank. The slow tempo of the society and the calming rhythm of his day job contributed to a period of “personal contentment and greater lyricism than Krishen had ever expressed before in painting.” (Gayatri Sinha, Krishen Khanna - A Critical Biography, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 2001, p. 48)

This period also saw Khanna creating a number of figurative works featuring women as the primary subject, such as the present lot. “With their rich skin tones and sensuous forms, they comprise the only body of female nude figures in Khanna’s oeuvre.” (Sinha, p. 48) These figurative works were largely created using a limited palette that focussed on browns, whites, and blacks - a conscious choice by Khanna in order to best capture the light surrounding his subjects in the city.

Khanna, in the present lot, makes use of “an impatient, brisk brush to create a cubist trapezium against which the nude stands poised. The body is lit by sunlight - suggesting an outdoor location - with just a suggestion of shade in her brown skin. The upraised arms over her head seem to be holding on to something and imply a freedom and joyfulness that are in contrast to the burnt browns and blacks of the painting, lifting it out of its background to suggest contentment in a most unusual space.” (Kishore Singh ed., The Naked and The Nude: The Body in Indian Art: Edition Two, New Delhi: DAG, 2015, p. 117)

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