26-27 / 160
21
KRISHEN KHANNA
(b. 1925)
Untitled
Signed and dated 'KKhanna 71' (on the reverse)
1971
Oil on canvas
49.5 x 35.5 in (125.7 x 90.2 cm)
$ 30,000 ‒ 50,000
Rs 19,20,000 ‒ 32,00,000
PROVENANCE:
Acquired in Mumbai, circa 1970
Private East Coast Collection
Krishen Khanna is among the few
Indianmodernists who focussed on
the figure, when many gravitated
towards the non‒representational.
Khanna’s
earliest
bandwallas
were painted in the 1970s, when
he explored the consequences
of war and victimisation, and
marginalised figures became his
main preoccupation. “As an artist,
Krishen’s own response to the
marginal figurewas alreadymanifest
in his paintings of refugees in the
1950s. His paintings of
bandwallas
build up a broad narrative around
these figures, one that draws
from mixed social references.”
(Krishen Khanna, Gayatri Sinha et
al.,
Krishen Khanna: Images in My
Time
, Aldershot: Lund Humphries,
2006, pp. 29, 31) The figures in
the present lot are caught in a
break during music‒making. Their
expressions are barely discernible,
but the overall mood is pensive.
They are blurry, almost blending
into the background, a statement
on their status in society, but as the
subjects of Khanna’s painting, they
gain dignity.
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT
PRIVATE COLLECTION, UK
19
GANESH PYNE
(1937 ‒ 2013)
a) Baul
Signed and dated in Bengali
(lower left) and bearing a label
with the title, signed and dated
in Bengali by the artist on the
hardboard (on the reverse)
2005
Watercolour and pastel on
paper
12 x 9 in (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
b) Young Baul
Signed and dated in Bengali
(lower left) and bearing a label
with the title, signed and dated
in Bengali by the artist on the
hardboard (on the reverse)
2005
Watercolour and pastel on
paper
12 x 9 in (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
$ 10,000 ‒ 12,000
Rs 6,40,000 ‒ 7,68,000
(Set of two)
PROVENANCE:
Acquired from Galerie 88, Kolkata
20
A A RAIBA
(1922 ‒ 2016)
Music and Dance
Signed 'A.A. Raiba' (centre left) and
inscribed 'MUSIC AND DANCE /
BY / A.A. RAIBA' (on the reverse)
Gouache on cloth laid on card
10.5 x 11.25 in (26.5 x 28.8 cm)
$ 3,000 ‒ 5,000
Rs 1,92,000 ‒ 3,20,000
PROVENANCE:
Formerly from a Family Collection,
Hawaii
a
b
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