Important Notice

“Krishen Khanna has tended to engage with his subjects as if in an extended and somewhat unstructured conversation between old friends, in which figures from another time often wander in and out of the frame [...] his paintings and drawings emerge as nuanced narratives in which the artist plays out his formal concerns, as well as the shifting and unfolding theatre of human relationships. Effectively, the paintings constitute a powerful... “Krishen Khanna has tended to engage with his subjects as if in an extended and somewhat unstructured conversation between old friends, in which figures from another time often wander in and out of the frame [...] his paintings and drawings emerge as nuanced narratives in which the artist plays out his formal concerns, as well as the shifting and unfolding theatre of human relationships. Effectively, the paintings constitute a powerful psychological engagement, one that also serves as a document of the passage of time in modern India.” (Gayatri Sinha, Krishen Khanna: The Embrace of Love, India: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 2005, p6) The ordinary, the seemingly unimportant or underrepresented—these form the crux of Khanna’s artistic engagement. As Sinha observes, Krishen Khanna handles his figures with a rare sensitivity; his narratives are devoid of any heroic splendour. His works—dealing with sombre issues such as death and displacement, and the contrasting subject of the jubilatory mood created by musicians and bandwallahs—are indicative of his versatility and capacity for simultaneously understanding a gamut of human experiences.

Khanna’s fascination with music began in the 1950s and marked a change in his artistic career. He now had a new muse—South Indian classical music. Following their move to Madras in 1953, his wife Renu developed an interest in Bharatnatyam, with Carnatic musicians visiting their home very often. Khanna frequented local concerts and often arranged them in his own home. He developed a fascination for music, and sought “with his brush to bring to the act of painting the dextrous speed of the music.....His attempt was to transform the creation of rhythmic sound in time, into the movement of brush in space, on canvas.....[His paintings] range from rapid gestural experiment to more carefully constructed compositions, in which the rhythm of the work emerges from the vertical-horizontal positioning of the musicians and instruments.” (Ibid., p48) His subaltern figures are portrayed with an intimacy that literary theorist Gayatri Spivak calls “an embrace of love that transgresses the structures of historical abuse”. (quoted in Krishen Khanna: The Embrace of Love, India: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 2005, p10)

In the present lot, Khanna depicts the subaltern—as termed by Spivak—using the device of the diptych. The focus is on the intimacy and momentary jubilation of the baithak, an informal gathering of people for a musical recital. Khanna renders the figures in silhouettes, hence not aggrandizing the recital. The participants are gathered under a common arch, featureless, delineations blurred to merge with the instruments in hand. The left panel depicts a sarod player mesmerising his audience; a woman in blue raises her hand in spontaneous appreciation and a man at her right appears captivated in the mood. The right panel features a flautist surrounded by people seated on the ground with their backs to the viewer. The viewer witnesses two performances occurring in the same house: Khanna has used the arch to divide the rooms as well unite the whole setting. By choosing the musical gathering for its intimate and jovial setting—baithaks are not formal performances—Khanna recreates the charm of the gathering through his thoughtful and measured approach.

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