Page 26 - TheArtsTrust Krishen Khanna

displacement as a student in London during World War II. Khanna returned View series that capture the precarious life of labour above: Khanna with
to Multan and later joined the Government College in Lahore, where and migration. wife Renu in Delhi in
1962, photographed
he studied English literature. There, tangible access to different literary The Bandwallas, perhaps Khanna’s most iconic by artist Tyeb Mehta
traditions and his friendship with Iranian refugee families fostered through characterisations, also represent more than just opposite: The first
and third Progressive
halting conversations in Persian, added to his layered narrative of exile and figurative props or street performers. In solidarity Artists’ Group
survival, which has always resonated throughout his oeuvre. and survival, their syncopated movements reflect exhibition catalogues
The artist found himself once more among fellow refugees when he the rhythms of metropolitan precarity. Similarly, the
quit his banking career in 1961 to pursue painting full-time and relocated his works inspired by Biblical iconography, especially the recurring figure of
family to a neighbourhood near Bhogal on Delhi’s Mathura Road, home to a Christ, also transcend religious symbolism to address subjects of suffering,
large number of Punjabi immigrants and a working class community. It was sacrifice, and empathy. Khanna comes back, again and again over decades
here that he gave visual form to these stories, producing works like the Rear and series, to those pushed to the periphery, whether portraying factory

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