KRISHNA REDDY | Praying Woman

Acquired directly from the artist in 2014  Ali Adil Khan is a Toronto based collector of South Asian art. He has contributed notable reviews on South Asian art and artists for leading art journals, newspapers and websites. He has also served as an adviser to the Royal Ontario Museum, Aga Khan Museum and the Art Gallery of Mississauga in Toronto and invited to speak at the 14th Asian Art Biennale in Dhaka. Khan’s collection includes modern and contemporary art, contemporary miniature paintings, calligraphy and art of Indian Cinema.

New York, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Krishna Reddy: A Retrospective, 5 November 1981 - 28 February 1982 (another from the edition)
New Delhi, Indira Gandhi Center for the Arts, The Embodied Image - Krishna Reddy A Retrospective, 20 November 2011- 21 January 2012 (another from the edition)
Kolkata, Experimenter Gallery, To a New Form: Krishna Reddy, 18 January - 31 March 2019 (another from the edition)

Exhibition catalogue, Krishna Reddy: A Retrospective, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, 1981, illustration p. 70 (another from the edition)
Exhibition catalogue, The Embodied Image - Krishna Reddy A Retrospective, Indira Gandhi Center for the Arts, New Delhi, 2011, illustration p. 70 (another from the edition)

There is some yellowing to the paper, consistent with time. This work is in overall good condition, as viewed.
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As a young artist from India, Krishna Reddy changed the way color prints were made in the 1950s, revolutionizing printmaking while working at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17 studio in Paris. He is credited with developing the "viscosity" method of printing intaglios, a technique that allowed consistent printing using multiple colors in oil of varying viscosity. The Praying Woman is an early example of his labor of love and creativity. Speaking of this work, Reddy noted ‘I made a series of drawings of standing figures working in detail from a particular person, slowly evolving toward a more abstract human figure. I ended up with the vertically drawn line which meant a life force or life rhythm for me. Using this extraordinary line as armature, I rebuilt it into a human form, with my etching materials. Using the motor-driven metal and stone grinders, I carved the figure like a sculpture. I covered the whole surface with fine aquatint. With a mechanical abrasive I polished the whole metal surface carefully. The figure emerged built of subtle aquatint tones. With the intaglio on, I rolled the colors with rollers of different densities. This time I discovered to my surprise the plate was vibrating and shimmering with tertiary color fields built in points, steaks and broken colors." (K. Reddy, Exhibition catalogue, Krishna Reddy: A Retrospective, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, 1981, p. 70). Another edition of this print is in the permanent collection of the British Museum, London.