Important Notice

"I have used monochrome because if there is something I want to say, it is best to avoid the dynamics of colour." - KRISHEN KHANNA

One of the leading figures of India's modernist movement, Krishen Khanna is globally renowned for an artistic idiom that is structurally rooted in the aesthetics of European modernism while his subject matter takes direct inspiration from the harsh socio-political reality of his times. Bordering on the... "I have used monochrome because if there is something I want to say, it is best to avoid the dynamics of colour." - KRISHEN KHANNA

One of the leading figures of India's modernist movement, Krishen Khanna is globally renowned for an artistic idiom that is structurally rooted in the aesthetics of European modernism while his subject matter takes direct inspiration from the harsh socio-political reality of his times. Bordering on the narrative, Khanna's work captures moments in history, much like photographs do, but the artist's technique is far from photorealist. Khanna transfers his observations onto the canvas with spontaneity and exuberance, keeping the representational elements of his subject matter intact.

Khanna's work is largely figurative and tends to focus more on the human condition due to his experiences with Partition as well as what he observed around him. "I used to do abstracts earlier and I have now moved on to human forms... I want to now emphasise the human beings caught up in their particular condition." (Artist quoted in an interview with Surendra Kumar Seth, Saffronart, online)

Khanna's black and white works occupy a space of their own in his extensive body of work. The lack of colour only serves to enhance his use of black ink or stick/crayon comprising graphite or charcoal. The man and the bird on his arm in the present lot are represented in stark detail, evoking movement and a clarity of form that is quintessentially Khanna in style.

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