Krishen Khanna, One of India’s Earliest Modernists, Celebrates His Century

Khanna was associated with the Progressive Artists' Group, whose work has impacted Indian art over the decades and is still in great demand.

Sidharth Bhatia

Jul 05 2025

Khanna was associated with the Progressive Artists' Group, whose work has impacted Indian art over the decades and is still in great demand.

krishen khanna one of india’s earliest modernists celebrates his century

Krishen Khanna, who turned 100 today on July 5, 2025, paints in his basement studio in March 2017. Photo: The Wire.

Krishen Khanna, who was associated with the Progressive Artists' Group, which was formed in Bombay in 1947, has turned 100 years old. The Progressives were a group that included F.N. Souza, M.F. Husain and S.H. Raza, and their objective was to create a new visual idiom for a newly independent India.

Their work has impacted Indian art over several decades since, and even today, works by the Progressives are in great demand among collectors at auctions.

Khanna’s own work reflects his humanity – his most popular series are truckwallas and bandwallas, as well as paintings on Christian themes, showing Jesus Christ more as a human rather than divinity.

This interview was originally conducted in March 2017, at Khanna’s home and studio in Gurugram, where Khanna, then 92, was at work on his latest painting.

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