Scribe

Krishen Khanna's art from the mid-1980's onwards becomes more private and reflective in nature. The artist began to keep a diary, which recorded images of figures from his immediate and distant past. It is at this point that images of the scribe first begin to surface in his art. "The scribe in particular, inspired by his grandfather whom he never knew and who had spent his life as an amanuensis, bespectacled and stooped over his writings, became the subject of a whole series of drawings. Like many of Krishen's earlier figures, the scribe affirms dignity even in the ordinary." (G. Sinha, Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography, New Delhi, 2001, p. 155.)