Page 32 - TheArtsTrust Krishen Khanna

visual landscape. The local labourers, the vivid presence of fruit vendors, and
the slow unfolding of daily life all became recurring motifs.
In this setting, Khanna’s works started to develop a more lyrical,
personal approach, resulting in a brief engagement with the nude form. A
delicate example of this is Spring Nude, from 1954. Warm ochres and deep
green hues define a solitary woman on the canvas, her form entwined with
lush vines that seem to fuse her with the natural world. Her downcast gaze
and reticent posture suggest a quiet inwardness as if caught in a moment of
private reflection. Executed with textured, expressive brushwork, the work
sensuously explores the connection between the human form and nature.
Due to Khanna’s growing interest in classical Indian music during this
period, his Chennai residence became a casual meeting place for distinguished
musicians, including mridangam genius Palghat Mani Iyer and flautist
Mahalingam. The encounters, fuelled by electric performances, inspired the
Musician Series. Rendered with deliberate composition and rhythm in form,
these works perfectly capture the crescendo of singers, tabla players, and
other instrumentalists at work. He revisited these sessions later in his career
with works like Mridangam Player (2005) and Concert At 115 Lloyds (2017).
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In 1962, Khanna became the first Indian above: Khanna with
recipient of the John D. Rockefeller III Fellowship artist J Swaminathan
in the 1980s
and travelled through East and Southeast Asia opposite left:
before arriving in the United States. In Japan, he Khanna with father
Kahan Chand and son
encountered Sumi-e or Suiboku-ga, an ink painting Karan in the 1960s
tradition rooted in Zen Buddhism. The technique,
which combines calligraphic mark-making with a
readiness to welcome the accidental, allowed him to pare down figuration
and focus on the atmosphere. It evolved his understanding of line and the
beauty of restraint. The thought later found resonance with the American
Abstract Expressionists he would engage with during his residency at the
American University in Washington DC in 1963 and 64. In succeeding years,
this exposure resulted in a series of works that were atmospheric and bridged
spontaneity with structure.
In Watermelon Eater, painted in 1966, Khanna executes the figure
through gestural brushstrokes and tonal shifts, which also renders the
painting a vibrant play of light and shadow. Barely distinguishable and yet
very much there, the figure of the watermelon eater emerges through a
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