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Krishen Khanna
The Last Bite

- “A redeeming feature in Khanna’s work is not the complete pursuit of the tragic but its deflation into the frequently petty and ridiculous. One of the most cogent expressions of this split vision is his painting The Last Supper (2004) seen with its companion piece The Last Bite (2005)...[the latter] is edgy and fraught with the possibility of interpretation. Instead of the central figure of the Christ it is Husain who sits at the centre of the table. Husain’s position as a founder member of the Progressive Artists Group has gained several layers with his preeminence as India’s most popular and widely recognized artist. He is holding a cup that replaces the empty table of Khanna’s earlier compositions on the same subject. The configuration of artists that he introduces is apocryphal as an enduring comment on Indian modernism. Husain is flanked on the left by Tyeb Mehta, Souza and Bhanu Atthaiya, the only woman who was a member of the Progressives, who shot into prominence not as a painter but as a costume designer for Bombay films, notably in her Oscar winning contribution for Attenborough’s Gandhi. From the loose fraternity of the Progressives, there is also the bespectacled Akbar Padamsee who appears to address Bhupen Khakhar (1934-2004) who, in turn, is speaking out of the frame. On Khakhar’s right the somewhat spectral figure of Gaitonde is in conversation with Jeram Patel who appears uncommitted, as conversation appears to fly around the table. Jogen Chowdhury looks contemplatively out of the frame, Manjit Bawa, Raza and Swaminathan complete the table of artists. Krishen Khanna speaks of the shared confabulations across such settings that have sustained the artists, of chai sessions at Chetna Restaurant in Mumbai, of just a cluster of chairs at the Bombay Art Society, and meetings around a dastarkhan of shared biryani in Husain’s house. The prominent table in these paintings is, he states, ‘a formal device that defines the painting, but it is also a divider.’ The division apparent at this table is the differing views on Indian modernism, and the debate that raged between the poles of indigenism and internationalism, between the Progressives and Group 1890, led by Jagdish Swaminathan…His composition locates such leading figures around the table in apparent confabulation, yet on closer inspection, there appear to be several dialogues on at the same time, areas of patent distraction, and the lack of coherence. Finally, it is also a painting that marks his affection for his fraternity of artists, in the true modernist spirit that honours the artist at the apex of art production” (Gayatri Sinha, Krishen Khanna: The Embrace of Love, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, 2005, p. 24-25). - “A redeeming feature in Khanna’s work is not the complete pursuit of the tragic but its deflation into the frequently petty and ridiculous. One of the most cogent expressions of this split vision is his painting The Last Supper (2004) seen with its companion piece The Last Bite (2005)...[the latter] is edgy and fraught with the possibility of interpretation. Instead of the central figure of the Christ it is Husain who sits at the centre of the ta

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Lot 73 of 127

KRISHEN KHANNA: A RETROSPECTIVE

ARTWORK DETAILS

Krishen Khanna
The Last Bite
2005
Oil on canvas
39.5 x 60 in (100.3 x 152.4 cm)
From a Private Collection
EXHIBITED:
Krishen Khanna, Saffronart in association with Osborne Samuel and Berkeley Sqaure Gallery, Royal Academy of Art, London, 2007
Krishen Khanna 2005, Saffronart and Berkeley Square Gallery, Mumbai, London, New York, 2005

PUBLISHED:
The Embrace of Love, Gayatri Sinha, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, 2005
Category: Painting
Style: Figurative

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Lot 73 of 127

ARTWORK DETAILS