Krishen Khanna (b.1925)

Glenbarra Art Museum Collection, Japan
Christie's, London, 5 October 1999, lot 101

Gayatri Sinha, Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography, New Delhi, 2001, p. 108

Painting in good overall condition. Minor surface abrasions on the paitning. Canvas would benefit from a light cleaning. It will also benefit from restretching on a new stretcher. Please refer to the department for image of the Krishen Khanna; the color representation printed in the catalogue is not accurate. The tones in reality are browns through to creams.
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This powerful painting is from the early 1970s, a period when Krishen Khanna began work on an important and intensely personal series known as The Dead and the Dying. Shaken by the international tumult of the 1960s; the revolutionary furor which populated Central and South America; the outbreak of war with Pakistan and the subsequent liberation of Bangladesh, Krishen began to explore and critique the dark underbelly of human violence, angst and oppression. Deeply moved by the ambush and execution of Che Guevara, Krishen's subsequent treatment of the human figure during this period reflects the pathos of the era – a mixture of anguish, torment, bravery, anxiety and disappointment.

This sentiment is captured in the current work from 1970, The End – a stark portrait of a faceless man, stripped, bound and blindfolded. The background is deepened with melancholy plum, crimson and cobalt hues and offset by desolate white slashes of the bondage tape. The head of the solitary figure hangs down upon his neck, in death, regret or resignation – a poignant tribute to the fallen heroes of the revolutions.

"A contemplation of the macabre, a preoccupation with sudden, violent death [occurs] in different periods ... Krishen's involvement with the theme of social realism coincided with his activist period. Those that seldom attract a second glance beomce Krishen's unlikely heroes. Like two younger artists, Bhuphen Khakhar and Sudhir Patwardhan, Krishen painted the life of the street. It is notable that, like his fellow artist Husain, Krishen, in his subject matter, oscillates from the banal to the sublime. [By the early 1970s] Krishen's preoccupation with gentle, lyrical subjects changed dramatically to issues of social injustice and oppression, something approaching an obsession with brutality in public life." (Gayatri Sinha, Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography, New Delhi, 2001, pp. 110-112)