Hues of HUMANITY

Centenarian artist Krishen Khanna continues to paint the paradox of wealth & poverty in his works

- FAIZAL KHAN

In the midst of the violence during the Partition, Krishen Khanna sought peace in the comforting words of a Sikh waiter in Shimla, where his family had fled after being uprooted from Lahore. At only 22, Khanna walked with the waiter to his hotel, listening intently to the working man's approach to a hard life's travails. For several decades, the worker's struggle would form a substantial part of his art practice, probing the inequalities amidst unparalleled wealth and privilege.

Khanna, one of India's most influential modernist painters, turned 100 on July 5. His long and prolific career, spanning eight decades, pays tribute to the working class. His paintings feature tailors, tea sellers, and truck drivers, revealing the paradox of wealth and poverty. Their haunting appeal towards humaneness and understanding is evident in his increasingly abundant depictions of bandwallas, the invisible individuals who provided the soundtrack for celebration.

Palette and pain
The striking images of the bandwallas roar from his canvases, sometimes several feet long in simultaneous panels. The colourfully attired street musicians are faceless; Khanna leaves their faces blank, adding agency to their contribution to the celebration. His brushstrokes, however, are pronounced in the loud tones of each musician's colourful dresses, hats, drums, drumsticks, and trumpets. The bandwallas are almost always surrounded by faceless, ordinary people, exacerbating the divide.