Krishen Khanna

Padma Bhushan Krishen Khanna, considered as one of the greatest painters of contemporary Indian art, was born in 1925 at Lyallpur, now Faisalabad in Pakistan. Krishen Khanna’s dynamic body of works cannot be separated from his social and political contexts. Being part of a generation that transitioned through various political phases of the subcontinent, Khanna has positioned his art as an important tool to comment on his immediate social realities. Whether they represent the struggles of the independence movement, the trauma of the partition, or the aspirations of the modern nation, Khanna anchored the artist as an active participant and critical commentator in all these moments. His paintings utilise allegory and symbolism effectively to fulfill these conditions. Widely exhibited since his early career, Khanna is one of the pioneers of modern Indian art.

He is a genre painter and a narrator who weaves and spins images out of the fragments of time.His art practice is embedded in the unfolding of his own life experiences.He assumes the position of the ‘katha vachak’ or narrator, looking outward to the other rather than the self.The central image then is of the artist as commentator,who,through painted gesture and narrative,seems to set up threads of connectivity.From the late 1940’s,he began to exhibit his works at the Bombay Art Society.He has exhibited with the Progressives at the Jehangir Art Gallery in 1951,following his invitation to their show in 1949.He also did several paintings on the subjects of death and displacement and revealed the first indication to paint subjects from myth and history.He became an artist-in-residence at the American University,Washington DC.In 2010,a retrospective of his works was exhibited at the Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi.

Academics

Khanna studied at the Imperial Service College,Windsor,England,from where he graduated in 1940 as a Rudyard Kipling Scholar.He returned to Lahore for a course in English literature at Government college and he simultaneously took evening class at the Mayo School of Art. 

Awards

Rockefeller Council Fellowship, New York in 1962-1963.
Kala Ratna,All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi in 1997.
Lalit Kala Ratna, President of India in 2004.
Padma Bhushan, Government of India in 2011.