Krishen Khanna
Born 5 August 1925 · Outside India
Created the Truckwallahs and Bandwallahs series depicting Indian street life in abstracted figurative style.
🔔 Add birthday reminderKrishen Khanna is an Indian painter known for his abstracted figurative artworks depicting street scenes of the country. He is a self-taught artist whose paintings showcase Indian idioms and human values. Notable works by Khanna include the Truckwallahs and Bandwallahs series as well as his paintings on Christian themes.
✨ A detail that surprised us
In 1962, Krishen Khanna became the first Indian awarded the Rockefeller Fellowship, enabling him to live and work as an artist-in-residence at American University in Washington, D.C.
1. 🎨 In 1938, at just 13, Krishen Khanna left Bombay aboard the RMS Strathmore to study art at the Imperial Service College in England, marking his first formal encounter with artistic training.
2. In 1946, Khanna enrolled in Sheikh Ahmed's studio in Lahore and simultaneously worked at Kapoor Art Works, where he earned Rs 350 monthly and bought his first artwork by Prannath Mago with his salary.
3. 🚗 On 12 August 1947, amidst the Partition riots, Khanna’s family fled Lahore by car to Shimla, a traumatic move that deeply influenced his later paintings depicting displacement and human struggle.
4. In 1948, Khanna began working at Grindlays Bank in Mumbai, balancing a stable job while connecting with the Progressive Artists' Group, which included MF Husain and FN Souza.
5. 🎖️ Quitting banking in 1961, Khanna pursued art full-time and won the Rockefeller Fellowship in 1962, leading to an artist residency at the American University in Washington, D.C., where he experimented with Abstract Expressionism.
6. 🖼️ Between 1992 and 1997, Khanna hand-painted the colossal mural The Great Procession for ITC Maurya Hotel, New Delhi, assembling it piece by piece in the lobby over five years, capturing Indian life’s diverse rhythms.
7. His paintings often cameo himself, as seen in his vibrant Bandwallahs series celebrating joyous occasions including his own marriage procession, blending personal memory with wider social narratives.
8. ❓ How did Khanna's experiences of Partition, migration, and urban street life shape his unique narrative style within Indian modern art?
Awards & Honours
- 🏅Padma Bhushan
🔍 One thing most people don't know
At age 13 in 1938, Khanna won the Rudyard Kipling Scholarship, traveling from Bombay to Britain on the RMS Strathmore to attend the Imperial Service College, where he first formally studied art.
🖼️ Through the Years
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📅 The Journey
🗝️ Discoveries
"All great art has to be local… At the same time, great art transcends the ordinary moment and strives to a moment in infinity"
— Krishen Khanna
🎥 Speeches & Recordings
In Conversation with Krishen Khanna | Painter
YouTube📖 Curated Sources
🌱 What changed because of them
Krishen Khanna’s vivid depictions of everyday Indian street life and migrant laborers introduced an empathetic narrative to modern Indian art, influencing the Progressive Artists' Group and beyond. His monumental mural at ITC Maurya Hotel remains a rare example of large-scale, hand-painted Indian art in a corporate space, bridging traditional themes with contemporary public art. His recognition by institutions like the Lalit Kala Akademi and the Indian government helped legitimize genre painting as a serious art form in India.
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