Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts and Books | April 2017

77 Krishen Khanna b.1925 Bandwala Oil on canvas, late 1980s Signed in English ‘K. Khanna’ l.r. and on verso 47.4 x 35.2 in (120.5 x 89.5 cm) Provenance A Private New Delhi-based collection INR 2,400,000 – 3,600,000 USD 35,820 – 53,730 “Both the mind and the hand of Krishen are finely attuned to a heritage, the artistic heritage of man. Unlike another flamboyant contemporary, he does not violate the canvas. He populates it with a feeling akin to reverence, creating haunting documents that achieve a timeless presence.” - J. Swaminathan, rpt. in Exhibition of Paintings by Krishen Khanna , ExC, Dhoomi Mal Gallery, 1979. ‘For me the area that has to be painted has to be cultivated like a piece of earth which will produce a rich yield. The image is withheld and not forced on the ground, it isn’t drawn out and then filled in. This would only produce a static and sterile image mechanically produced. The image, or the idea of the image is planted rather like a seed in prepared ground which is ready to receive it. It surfaces and often enough does not correspond to what I had thought it would be. It is then submerged again and then meets the same act of sinking and obliteration unless it resists in its rightness.’ – Krishen Khanna, rpt. in Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography . New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery 2001; p171. 166 | Osian’s–Connoisseurs of Art