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Lot 38

 

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“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

The present lot is part of Krishen Khanna’s well-known bandwallah series, which he first began painting in the early 1970s. Speaking of how he came to paint his first portraits of these musicians, Khanna... “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

The present lot is part of Krishen Khanna’s well-known bandwallah series, which he first began painting in the early 1970s. Speaking of how he came to paint his first portraits of these musicians, Khanna explains that once, while driving out of his Delhi studio, his path was blocked by the marching band of a wedding procession. “Against the background of the 18th-century Garhi fort with its large, capacious artist studios, the raucous band crammed into the small mean street of Garhi village. The syncopated tunes intended for the jollification of a baraat (wedding party), the quotient of assertive maleness and vigour of the accompanying groom’s party, the residual image of the British colonial march past, and sanguine military energy collapsed into a singular image on that warm Delhi afternoon.” (Gayatri Sinha, “Serenading Lajwanti,” Krishen Khanna, Norbert Lynton et al, Krishen Khanna: Images In My Time, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd. and Hampshire: Lund Humphries, 2007, p. 27)

As with Khanna’s other genre paintings that depict scenes from roadside dhabas or migrant labourers in the backs of trucks, the image of the bandwallah is a form of social commentary on the class divide that continues to exist in urban Indian spaces. “Positioning himself as sympathetic spectator and a somewhat humorous narrator, Krishen Khanna has steadily painted the bandwallah; the heroics of the street have been rendered with a deep humanist sympathy... In their hired uniforms, they resemble the men in trucks; because of their ceaseless movement they become emblematic of the volatility of the city.” (Sinha, p. 28)

Black and white works occupy a space of their own in Khanna’s extensive body of work. The lack of colour only serves to enhance his use of charcoal as can be seen in the present lot. As stated by the artist “when you are dealing with black-and-white, you are not sucked in or seduced by colour.” (Artist quoted in “Saffronart’s new Delhi gallery opens with senior artist Krishen Khanna”, Hindustan Times, November 2016, online)

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