Krishen Khanna: The Journey

Krishen Khanna (born July 5, 1925) is a celebrated Indian modernist painter and one of the last surviving members of the Progressive Artists’ Group, renowned for his figurative works depicting Partition, urban life, and working-class communities. A self-taught artist who left a banking career in 1961 to paint full-time, Khanna is best known for his vivid Bandwallahs and Truckwallahs series, which combine empathetic storytelling with expressive brushwork. Honoured with the Padma Shri (1990) and Padma Bhushan (2011), his eight-decade career bridges the post-Independence art movement and contemporary practice, making him a vital chronicler of India’s social and cultural transformations.