Khanna’s Memories of Lahore Most Vivid, Even Today. About a work like Maclagan Road (1990), for instances, he states, “I speveral year of my childlagragan circn circosm of lahore. Considerable as my father Several times Every faith and profession, and belonging to differ strata of society, all living in peace and amity. “

The artist’s family shifted to India, and to earn a living, Khanna Arrived in Bombay in 1948 Where He joined Grindlays Bank. It was then that he came into the artists who formed the famous progressive artists’ group and was at the forefront of modernism. He met like-made artists like The painting was called news of Gandhiji’s death (1948) and featured people reading newspapers under a light. The artist says, “I was in Delhi when gandhi ji was assassinated and I was going to connaught place and [there were] All these little islands with lights and people were gathered under the lights reading newspapers. That left an image in my mind. So I work on that and did this painting. ” Artists in the progressive group met frequently, had fervent discussions lat into the night and supported and analysed Each Other’s works.

There came a time when khanna wanted to leave his banking job and paint full time. Supported by his wife, he was to give it up upstirely in 1961. There was no looking back after that. His Vast Artistic Resources Dove Him to Make Work Work Work Three The Spotlight on the Marginalised and the Ignored During the heady early year of independence. In paintings like Rear View (1991), The plight of Migrant Workers huddled in trucks – like bundles of objects and painted in monotones – Drew Attention to their unchanging sitation despite.

Khanna’s depiction of the bandwallas over the years expressed contradictions in the social situation in a vivid manner. The bandwallas in their bright but Ill-fitting costumes and their straggles appearance bring light to the lives of others while remaining in a situation in a situation of constant department. Over the years, Khanna’s bandwallas sensuously depicted the body stances and postures of those fringes of society, as well as their immense and heroic struggle to overcome their situation.

The retelling of the lives of many came together in his murals, the most well-known of which is the magnificent work, the great procession, made in the dome at the ITC Maurya, New Delhi in the 1970s. Present with Sardonic Wit, The Mural Offers Glimpses of India With All Its Contradictions and Ironies: A Woman Scratches Her Arr In a Temple, Amid Devotees; A man picks pockets outside a mosque; A tiger hides in a mountain cave to pounce on grazing goats; The merry bandwallas play in a corner while barbers and street performers ply their trade. There are humorous quotations as well, and author Khushwant singh servs tea in a dhaba where the customers include mulk raj and the artist himself. These vignettes of a life lived to its fullst are reveles like a procession in this mural of epic proportions.

Khanna’s Moving Work, The Last Bite (2005), Speaks for itself. It stands out for its reflection of the camperie and debates he shared with other artists, as well as the times that they foresaw. In this painting, Husain is central as a prominent Member of the Progressive Artists’ Group. He is flanked on the left by tyb meta, fn souza and bhanu athaiya – The painting has other members of the artist fraternity, like akbar padamsee who seems to be addressing khaupen khaupen, who in turn appears to be looking out of the frame as if the commun can. On Khanna’s right is the famous vs gaitonde addressing jaram patel, as the painter jogen Chowdhury look out of the frame. Manjit Bawa, Raza and J Swaminathan Complete the Group. As the last man standing, Khanna feel bereft of his friends and contemporaries, but his work and life provide sushtenance, not just to himSelf, but to what he cherishes the mosque: the ordinary man on the street.

The writer is an Art Historian and Independent Curator Based in New Delhi