Important Notice

"There is something sad and ridiculous about the band. A legacy from our erstwhile English rulers, whether official or military in pompous regalia... the band is a macabre comment on bourgeois existence." - KRISHEN KHANNA

Krishen Khanna's earliest bandwallas were painted in the 1970s, when he mulled over the consequences of war and victimisation, and marginalised figures became his main preoccupation. "As an artist,... "There is something sad and ridiculous about the band. A legacy from our erstwhile English rulers, whether official or military in pompous regalia... the band is a macabre comment on bourgeois existence." - KRISHEN KHANNA

Krishen Khanna's earliest bandwallas were painted in the 1970s, when he mulled over the consequences of war and victimisation, and marginalised figures became his main preoccupation. "As an artist, Krishen's own response to the marginal figure was already manifest in his paintings of refugees in the 1950s. His paintings of bandwallas build up a broad narrative around these figures, one that draws from mixed social references." (Gayatri Sinha, "Serenading Lajwanti," Krishen Khanna, Norbert Lynton, Gayatri Sinha et al., Krishen Khanna: Images in My Time, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing and Aldershot: Lund Humphries, 2006, pp. 29, 31) The present lot depicts the street musicians in their typical red uniform, perhaps caught in the middle of a procession. With their barely discernible expressions and as one of the last vestiges of our colonial past, they draw attention to their status in society, but also gain dignity as the focus of Khanna's work.

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site