Krishen Khanna

Acquired directly from the artist in 1981

New Delhi, Rabindra Bhavan, Krishen Khanna, 1980

Geneva, Switzerland, Edition Halle Sud, Coups de Coeur, 1987

Cornu, R., Coups de Coeur, Geneva, 1987, p. 75 illus.

G. Sinha, Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2001, p. 128 illus.

Krishen Khanna was born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, and grew up in Lahore. Following Partition in 1947, Khanna's family moved to Simla. Partition had a profound impact on Khanna, he was deeply affected by not only the change in his personal circumstances but also the socio-political chaos that it brought to bear. His early works are interpretations of the scenes that were indelibly imprinted on his memory during this period.

This exceptional painting titled Deposition from the Cross, was one of thirteen paintings Khanna created for an exhibition at the Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi on the theme of the Christ cycle.

Throughout his career Khanna has used biblical references within an Indian context to illustrate his social concerns. Khanna uses the theme of the persecution of Christ as a metaphor for the plight of the everyday man. The inspiration for the Christ cycle came to him whilst driving with his father up to Simla. Along the way they stopped at at dhaba for tea, when Kahan Chand remarked that any of the waiters at the cafe could be a Christ figure. In the artist's own words: "The Christ series are set here in Delhi, Nizamuddin in fact, and appear as current happenings. He is wandering amongst us or sleeping with us... I painted Jesus, not in the image given by European painters, but as one of the fakirs one sees around Hazrat Nizamuddin." ('Interview with Chanda Singh', India Magazine, September 1984)

Khanna's 'Christ becomes emblematic of a resistance to persecution ...  this is neither the healing Christ, the divine worker of miracles or the haloed Son of God but the persecuted figure within an oppressive system.' (G. Sinha, Krishen Khanna, The Embrace of Love,  Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, 2005, p.18.) The physique of the figures depicted are those of the labourers found in the Nizamuddin District. 'His figures as labouring class men bear all the marks of urban migration under duress, wearing their marks of poverty.' (ibid.)

What it is interesting about this work, is that Christ is painted in the same position that is used in the various depictions of the Pieta, when Mother Mary is cradling Christ across her lap. In this painting, instead of the Virgin Mary, discombobulated dark-skinned figures are carrying Christ's body whilst a heavily veiled woman in blue watches from the background. Just as he had seen the everyman in Christ and the pathos that he universally embodies, Khanna has literally painted the everyman in this work. The figures surrounding Christ could have come straight off the streets of Delhi. This moving painting rendered in bright, almost surreal hues of purple, green, blue and pink, is arguably one of Khanna's finest compostions depicting this theme.