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Lot 28

 

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The ordinary, the seemingly unimportant or underrepresented-these form the crux of Khanna's artistic engagement. Krishen Khanna handles his figures with a rare sensitivity; his narratives are devoid of any heroic splendour. His works are indicative of his versatility and capacity for simultaneously understanding a gamut of human experiences.

With Evening Readers, Khanna offers a space to view a scene that is often overlooked owing to... The ordinary, the seemingly unimportant or underrepresented-these form the crux of Khanna's artistic engagement. Krishen Khanna handles his figures with a rare sensitivity; his narratives are devoid of any heroic splendour. His works are indicative of his versatility and capacity for simultaneously understanding a gamut of human experiences.

With Evening Readers, Khanna offers a space to view a scene that is often overlooked owing to its ubiquity. Groups of working men have huddled together, attentively reading the happenings of the day. These men are representative of the hundreds of ordinary, hardworking men who voraciously consume and analyse current affairs and its impact on their lives. We see silhouettes of forms; the facial details have perhaps been left out to draw the viewer's attention to the act of gathering in a group to read and later discuss the news. Khanna has explored the subject of newsreaders a number of times: Study for Newsreaders, Evening News, and Old Man Reading Paper, all made in 2005, show these underrepresented figures carefully reading the news and letting it sink in.

"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, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., India, 2005, pg. 6)

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