Born on July 5, 1925, Khanna is one of the most revered artists in the discourse of Modern Indian Art, and hailed as the ‘Last Progressive’. At 100 years of age, his oeuvre is set in a society that has seen nearly unimaginable changes, and his work has chronicled 20th and 21st century India like no other artist. At the heart of his diverse practice lies an unwavering devotion to the subaltern, the daily wage earner, the street musician, the migrant labourer and those dwelling on the margins. Khanna has emphatically and persistently addressed them, presenting their lives with dignity, beauty and gravitas. Through these figures, revisited across time and series, he offers not only a reflection on contemporary Indian life but also a deeply personal narrative—one in which memory, imagination, and social consciousness are in constant dialogue.

This profound kinship with those who live in quiet resilience is not incidental. It is rooted in the formative years of his life, marked by migration and the slow forging of belonging in the unfamiliar. Like many young Indians from Punjab, the artist experienced the trauma of Partition as it tore into the fabric of everyday life.

Among the many threads of recollection that run through his work, one is the Watermelon series. These paintings, often depicting groups of children enjoying watermelon with utter abandon, are rooted in Khanna’s early memories of life on Maclagan Road in Lahore (now in Pakistan), of long summer days and street games.

In A Season of Watermelons, the artist summons a gathering of familiar figures from his visual world to savour the sweetness of the fruit in the summer warmth. Every element in the composition—figures on a balcony, a buffalo, dogs, pigtailed children with their faces buried in watermelon, and also the fruit vendor and the veiled woman next to him echo in his other works. Even the bird perched on a tree in the corner of the canvas is a frequently executed motif in Khanna’s artistic vocabulary. Rendered with a domination of vivid hues like red, green and yellow, these works celebrate the carefree camaraderie of childhood friendships in one’s own neighbourhood.