Page 24 - TheArtsTrust Krishen Khanna

above: Khanna with a 1989 work titled The Old Story Teller, he sits
the Progressive Artists’
Group, and supporters patiently on the floor as children cling to his arms
and patrons in 1948 or climb over his shoulders. A toddler on his lap
opposite above: Khanna
with his trademark pipe in reaches out for his face as others surround him.
the late 1950s The expression on the old man’s face of surrender
opposite below: Khanna
advising Camlin on artists’ and acceptance of the children’s shenanigans is
colours in the 1960s comically wilful in this interplay of stillness and
movement. Painted in a warm, earthy palette, the
tender scene retrieves a lost world.
Another imagery referencing the storyteller in Khanna’s oeuvre is that
of the Scribe. This semi-historical, semi-imagined character is said to be
inspired by the artist’s grandfather, a man from the late 19th century he only
knew through family fables. A recurring feature in his body of work since the
mid-1990s, the scribe is often depicted as a solitary figure. Sometimes, he is
absorbed in his work behind a classic Indian desk and other times, captured
in a profile of quiet contemplation. Khanna’s characteristic sepia tones give
the figure a sense of rootedness in history. The scribe offers no visionary
revelation, like Christ at Emmaus or Bhishma on the bed of arrows. Rather,
his profound stillness echoes the silent register of everyday life.
Marooned in their own country, Khanna’s family left Lahore only
days before the Partition. He had undergone a similar experience of sudden

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