23 January, 2010

Our heart went out to the grand old artist Krishen Khanna, when Dinesh Vazirani, chief of Saffronart, said, “ Over the past few years, Krishen has been expressing a desire to have a retrospective show of his work of the past five decades while he is still around. May God bless him with a long life, but he has always wanted to do this show while he is living and not like many other artists whose retrospectives come up only once they are gone.” Vazirani, CEO and founder of the Mumbai- based art auction house Saffronart, was talking about the birth of the Krishen Khanna Retrospective show at its inauguration on Friday at the Lalit Kala Akademi.

Adding to what Vazirani said, Khanna remarked, “ Tyeb ( Mehta) wanted to have his own retrospective but he couldnt.” Mehta, a friend of Khanna since his days in Mumbai when the two were both young and setting out on their illustrious careers as artists, had passed away on July 2 last year.

The 84- year- old veteran artist looked happy and as Vazirani remarked, “ dapper,” overshadowing everyone and everything at the venue, including his own canvases. The show, featuring over 120 works of art from various collections, offers a visual trip along the path that Khanna has traversed enroute to where he is now. “ Weve got extensive media coverage for the show in the past one week as a result of which collectors about whom we werent aware began calling us at the last minute, offering Krishen Khanna canvases from their collections to be included in the show. It was overwhelming but unfortunately we couldnt include these last- minute requests due to the processes involved,” said Vazirani.

The CEO of Saffronart has also shared a Krishen Khanna canvas from his personal collection for the exhibition. This canvas is The Last Bite , inspired by The Last Supper , which features Khannas artist friends surrounding M. F. Husain who is sitting in the centre.

Pointing out to the only woman in the group, Vazirani said, “ I can identify all of them except the mystery woman. Who is that, Krishen?” Khanna replied, “ Bhanu Rajopadhye.” He was referring to Bhanu Athaiya, Indias first Oscar winner, who won the Academy award for Costume Design for the film Gandhi ( 1982). “ A graduate of Sir J. J. School of Arts, Bhanu was also part of our Progressive Artists Group,” he said.

Khanna also re- lived many interesting anecdotes from the early decades of his life.

“ When I took ( M. F.) Husain to open his first bank account ( with the Grindlays Bank where Khanna worked), the employee asked me if he was my friend. I replied in the affirmative, to which he added, But he is an artist. Is he reliable?,” laughed Khanna. It was Husain who had helped a young Khanna develop contacts in the art world.

We also spotted author Vikram Seth at the leisurely afternoon interaction with the artist before the formal launch in the evening.

That seemed like a surprise since all the authors are presently at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Is he researching for a possible book on artists? You never know!

The show is on at the Lalit Kala Akademi till February 5

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