Untitled

Artist: Krishen Khanna
Medium: Oil on Canvas Pasted on Board
Size: 38 × 11 inches (96.52 × 27.94 cm)

This striking work by Krishen Khanna presents a powerful study in abstraction, figuration, and emotional resonance. At first glance, the painting reveals a male figure in a vertical, close-up composition. The body is portrayed in a contorted yet dynamic pose, suggesting both physical strain and psychological depth. Executed in a muted palette of earthy reds, browns, and yellowish tones, the canvas conveys an intensity that is both raw and intimate.

The figure is painted with visible brushwork, the strokes imparting a textured, tactile quality that brings the body into sharp relief while simultaneously dissolving its contours into the surrounding ground. The head is shown in profile, bent slightly downward, while the arms curve inward as if holding, lifting, or supporting an unseen weight. This positioning generates a strong sense of movement and tension, characteristic of Khanna’s ongoing interest in the human condition.

The background, rendered in subdued yellow-brown hues, merges seamlessly with the figure, eliminating any rigid boundary between subject and environment. This blending emphasizes the vulnerability of the body, almost as if it is absorbed into the atmosphere around it. The use of impasto in parts of the canvas lends volume and physicality, while the softened edges prevent the work from becoming rigidly figurative, maintaining instead a lyrical ambiguity.

Khanna, one of India’s foremost modern masters, has long been celebrated for his ability to navigate between realism and abstraction, and for his deep engagement with themes of human struggle, displacement, and resilience. This work reflects his distinctive ability to distill emotion into form, using color and gesture to create figures that seem suspended between strength and fragility.

Beyond its formal qualities, the painting speaks to a larger narrative within Khanna’s oeuvre. His works often bear witness to the profound experiences of post-Partition India, and to the shared burden of survival and endurance. While the figure here is unnamed and abstracted, it nevertheless embodies a universality that allows viewers to project onto it a spectrum of human emotions, suffering, burden, reflection, and dignity.

This painting stands as a testament to Krishen Khanna’s mastery of form and expression. Through its textured surfaces, muted palette, and powerful figuration, it invites the viewer into a contemplative engagement with the complexities of human existence.