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Updated On: 25 August, 2024 08:39 AM IST | Mumbai | Sucheta Chakraborty
Tao Art Gallery celebrates the 100th year of Krishen Khanna, the last surviving progressive artist, highlighting urban, Christian and mythological themes in his distinctive abstracted figurative artwork
The exhibition commemorates Krishen Khanna’s prolific seven-decade-long career and features a collection of sculptures, tapestries, paintings and hand sketches from his various phases
When the Partition of India happened, it became imperative to look for a method of existence. Middle-class families had to scramble for any means of earning… I have seen and been through the wrench of people being thrown out of their world, which has moved me to express their world,” 99-year-old Krishen Khanna tells us in an email interaction, transcribed by his daughter Malati Shah, when we ask him if there is a period in his prolific seven-decade-long career that now feels particularly prominent. Khanna grew up in pre-Partition Lahore, and the country’s turbulent social and political history found a way into his work that encapsulated the human and the everyday. “[O]ne developed a sense of humour and empathy, which buoyed one’s spirits. Add to this my desire and ability to express it,” he observes. “Things that are heavy can be viewed with lightness and empathy. Empathy is the foundation of my art, depicting ordinary people in their nobility.”
Khanna’s distinguished career is being commemorated in an exhibition (on till September 3) at Worli’s Tao Art Gallery titled Krishen Khanna: The 100th Year of a Legacy. “Krishen ji’s subjects are about the common man rendered in an abstract way. He is a constant reader, writer and creator, who has lived each day to its fullest. I feel that the new generation must get glimpses of his creations,” Tao’s owner and curator of the show Kalpana Shah, who has wanted to put this show together for a while, tells us.
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