Krishen Khanna

In the early 1960s, Krishen Khanna embraced a number of important artistic influences. After visiting Japan on his way from India to the United States for a traveling fellowship in 1962, he became captivated by the delicacy of the Japanese Sumi-e (or Suibokuga) ink painting technique. At the same time, ‘Krishen’s interest in the Sumi-e dovetailed and coincided with his tilt towards abstract expressionism, the dominant style in New York in the later 1950s and early 1960s.’ (G. Sinha, Krishen Khanna A Critical Biography, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2001, p. 88) The current lot exemplifies the interconnected and international outlook of modern artists like Khanna, whose practice drew from a network of dynamic influences across the globe.

In a letter from Sayed Haider Raza to Khanna in 1964, Raza praises his fellow artist’s Sumi-e paintings. He wrote: ‘I really like them and precisely for the vitality of mass relationship and space coherence which have preoccupied me for several years now’. (ibid., p. 94)