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Krishen Khanna
Last Supper

- “Khanna’s Last Supper typically introduces the apostles and Jesus around a table; its square dimensions over a compressed view that is emphasized by the raised perspective that the artist assumes, affording a foreshortened view of the scene. If we use da Vinci’s Last Supper as a base reference – which Khanna saw and first attempted to paint at the age of seven – we see a profoundly indigenist and subaltern view at work. In The Last Supper (1979) many of the obvious similarities – such as the remains of the repast, the bread and the Eucharist – are dispensed with. As Christ speaks of imminent betrayal, each of the disciples, except Judas react with profound emotion – from Philip and John’s intense questioning to the expressly held hand of Thaddeus. By presenting a square format rather than the conventional rectangular frontal viewing of the apostles, Krishen Khanna engages in several formal innovations. All architectural details or a view of the well illuminated landscape behind the apostles are dispensed with. Khanna’s Last Supper is set in an interior within such compression that we have the impression of a single spartan room in which even the air is still. No source of light is visible, Christ himself is the solitary source of illumination and the shadows appear to descend into the edges of the frame. In dispensing with all props and accoutrements, he nevertheless retains the possibility of symbolic references.

“Khanna retains some of the symbols of the original, notably the central Christ, who cups his hands on the table in a void. An unexplained source of light illuminates his face and upper body, bound tightly with a cloth. The disciples around the table enact the responses that his revelation inevitably brings, from dismay to animated exchange. The uncertain location, the absence of any social context is only mitigated by the disciples themselves. Their rough handspun clothing, largely unstitched in the manner of Indian farmers or poor labourers, their heavy features and limbs identify them as working-class men. By locating the Last Supper within this group, Khanna opens up the possibilities of varied interpretation. The absence of any vestige of the meal, the subaltern status of the dark rough-hewed men, their tense huddled bodies betray an anxious concern with issues of survival” (Gayatri Sinha, Krishen Khanna: The Embrace of Love, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, 2005, p. 21-22). - “Khanna’s Last Supper typically introduces the apostles and Jesus around a table; its square dimensions over a compressed view that is emphasized by the raised perspective that the artist assumes, affording a foreshortened view of the scene. If we use da Vinci’s Last Supper as a base reference – which Khanna saw and first attempted to paint at the age of seven – we see a profoundly indigenist and subaltern view at work. In The Last Supper (1979)

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Lot 33 of 127

KRISHEN KHANNA: A RETROSPECTIVE

ARTWORK DETAILS

Krishen Khanna
Last Supper
1979
Oil on canvas
54 x 68 in (137.2 x 172.7 cm)
From the Collection of Jeroo Mango
PUBLISHED:
Krishen Khanna - A Critical Biography, Gayatri Sinha, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2001
Category: Painting
Style: Figurative

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Lot 33 of 127

ARTWORK DETAILS