Krishen Khanna (b.1925)
Born in Lahore, Khanna learnt the tools of his trade at the
evening classes conducted at the Mayo School of Art, Lahore. In the wake of
India's partition he moved to Simla and thereafter to Delhi where he currently
lives and works. So far, he has had over forty one-man shows held at galleries
in India and abroad. He has participated in the Tokyo Biennale, in 1957 and
1961, the Sao Paulo Biennale (1960) and in the Venice Biennale (1962). He won
the National Award of the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi in 1965, the Gold Medal
at the First Triennale of Contemporary World Art, New Delhi in 1968. He was a
recipient of Padma Shree, awarded by the President of India, in 1990.
Khanna transfers his observations onto the canvas, with spontaneity and exuberance, without obliterating his subject matter. His earlier works are reproductions of scenes that have imprinted themselves on his mind. He was profoundly moved by the events he witnessed during the Partition of India in 1947. He painted 'News of Gandhiji's Death' after the Mahatma's assassination, which shows a group of people standing motionless around a traffic island in Delhi, all immersed in their newspapers.
Khanna now lives & works in New Delhi.