Krishen Khanna

Acquired directly from the artist

Gayatri Sinha, Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2001, p.131 illustrated

This painting is in good and stable condition overall. A minor surface scratch above Christ's knee has been consolidated. Wear to all four edges of the canvas, not visible from the front. As a result, this painting has been strip lined for tautness. This work could benefit from a light clean. UV inspection: There are areas of restoration around the edges of the canvas and minor spots of infilling around the figures. The faces of the figures have not been re-touched. This is only visible under UV light.
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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 relates to an earlier important series of works known as The Dead and the Dying. "The theme of death returns in a concerted way in the 1970s. Many of his subjects draw directly from the idea of impending death or its violent aftermath. […] Krishen’s phase of involvement with the theme of social realism coincided with his activist period." (G. Sinha, Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography, New Delhi, 2001, pp. 110-112).

Within his work, Khanna uses biblical references within an Indian context, their religious symbolism becomes a social concern. Throughout his career Khanna has returned to the theme of the persecution of Christ which he uses as a metaphor for the suffering of the everyday man. The inspiration for the Christ theme 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)

The physique of the figures with their sun darkened bodies and wizened callous faces are those of the labourers found in the Nizamuddin District. 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." (Sinha, ibid., p.18.) The Pieta is a subject Khanna has returned several times in his career, each time addressing the subject in a different stylistic manner. "The Pieta paintings relate to his concern with the subject of the dead and the dying, as much as with the persecuted figure of the Christ. Khanna uses the essential composition of the seated Mother Mary cradling her son, as widely perpetuated by the Pieta of Michelangelo. The Pieta is among the few maternal figures in Khanna's oeuvre, and his interpretation of the figure varies in its palette, as well as the reworking of the pyramidal structure." (ibid. pp. 25 &30). In his Pieta of 1966, Khanna uses an expressionistic approach, placing an emphasis on the Mother Mary. This is abandoned in the current Pieta of 1978 and later in 1988, where he introduces the two Marys at the base of cross, with the central figure of the Mother, draped in a striking deep blue vestment that draws comparisons with Allesandro Allori's Pieta as well as the Pieta after Delacroix by Vincent Van Gogh. Gayatri Sinha goes on to highlight the shift in Mary's portrayal from "a passive suffering figure to an active resisting one, a working class woman with the strong hands of her class, who protects the persecution of her exhausted son." (ibid.)

This moving and emotional Pieta from 1978, painted with subtle hues of blues and ochres, is arguably one of Krishen Khanna's finest compositions that he has produced in his career. The expressionistic brushstrokes and Khanna's mastery of light and tonality imbues the work with an otherworldly aura reminiscent of Dutch Master Paintings.