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Lot Essay
Krishen Khanna, the iconic centenarian, is one of India’s foremost modern artists and an integral part of the story of Indian art in the twentieth century. Born in 1925 in Lyallpur (present-day Faisalabad, Pakistan), Khanna moved through Lahore, Simla, Bombay and Madras before finding himself working for Grindlays Bank in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh in 1959. At the time, his artistic practice was gaining momentum, and he was being urged by his close friends in the Progressive Artists’ Group to quit his career in banking and take up painting full time. While mulling this decision over, Khanna visited Paris, where he stayed with the collectors Krishna and Jean Riboud. The couple introduced him to prominent Zapotec and Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo who acquired one of his small drawings and encouraged him to take inspiration from his surroundings and “not to neglect his home territory” (G. Sinha, “Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography,” New Delhi, 2001, p. 176).
Taking Tamayo’s words to heart, the arid farmland surrounding Kanpur began making an appearance in Khanna’s paintings of the period. These landscapes, including the present lot, marked a dramatic shift from the pictures he painted in Bombay and Madras. “The music of Madras is silent; its strongly determined figures in white under a harsh sun have made way for the ochres, yellows and reds of the flat dusty plains of Kanpur. In the period 1959 to 1961, which roughly corresponds with the Kanpur years, Krishen’s work reflects a state of mental transition” (G. Sinha, “Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography,” New Delhi, 2001, p. 80).
In the present lot, painted in 1960 and titled Landscape at Dusk, vivid colors and intense brushwork pop against a pale background, while sharp lines of the palette knife delineate form and create a feeling of movement evocative of winds sweeping across the farmlands. In this work and other paintings of the period, “geometry may be observed playing a major constructive role behind the lively, eye-catching brushwork” (N. Lynton, Krishen Khanna: Images in my Time, Ahmedabad, 2007, p. 120).
Landscape at Dusk was exhibited by the artist at his first international solo show at the Leicester Galleries in London in 1960. Writing about Khanna’s work for the catalogue of this exhibition, the critic George Butcher noted that the artist was one of the few whose work defined “‘Indian’ identity within the context of modern painting in general” (G.M. Butcher, Krishen Khanna, London, 1960, p. 5). As the artist himself noted, “All great art has to be local. When I say local, I mean an artist has to draw from the things near to him so that a certain impression comes through in his paintings. At the same time, great art transcends the ordinary moment and strives to a moment in infinity” (Artist statement, K. Singh ed., India Modern: Narratives From 20th Century Indian Art, New Delhi, 2015, p. 198).
Taking Tamayo’s words to heart, the arid farmland surrounding Kanpur began making an appearance in Khanna’s paintings of the period. These landscapes, including the present lot, marked a dramatic shift from the pictures he painted in Bombay and Madras. “The music of Madras is silent; its strongly determined figures in white under a harsh sun have made way for the ochres, yellows and reds of the flat dusty plains of Kanpur. In the period 1959 to 1961, which roughly corresponds with the Kanpur years, Krishen’s work reflects a state of mental transition” (G. Sinha, “Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography,” New Delhi, 2001, p. 80).
In the present lot, painted in 1960 and titled Landscape at Dusk, vivid colors and intense brushwork pop against a pale background, while sharp lines of the palette knife delineate form and create a feeling of movement evocative of winds sweeping across the farmlands. In this work and other paintings of the period, “geometry may be observed playing a major constructive role behind the lively, eye-catching brushwork” (N. Lynton, Krishen Khanna: Images in my Time, Ahmedabad, 2007, p. 120).
Landscape at Dusk was exhibited by the artist at his first international solo show at the Leicester Galleries in London in 1960. Writing about Khanna’s work for the catalogue of this exhibition, the critic George Butcher noted that the artist was one of the few whose work defined “‘Indian’ identity within the context of modern painting in general” (G.M. Butcher, Krishen Khanna, London, 1960, p. 5). As the artist himself noted, “All great art has to be local. When I say local, I mean an artist has to draw from the things near to him so that a certain impression comes through in his paintings. At the same time, great art transcends the ordinary moment and strives to a moment in infinity” (Artist statement, K. Singh ed., India Modern: Narratives From 20th Century Indian Art, New Delhi, 2015, p. 198).