Aftermath by Krishen Khanna, $116,000 (£90,500) at Taurus Auctions.
Offered in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, on February 29, Aftermath, dating to the 1960s, came for sale from the collection of Lewis and Leanne Goodfriend of Westchester, New York.
The work of the nonagenarian is today represented in many museum collections both in India and abroad, but when this picture was produced Khanna had only recently committed to a career as a painter.
He was awarded the Rockefeller Fellowship in 1962 (the year he represented India at the Venice Bienniale) and was an artist-in-residence at the American University in Washington in 1963-64.
Partition poignancy
Painted in the Expressionist style, Aftermath (titled verso alongside the fragment of an exhibition label) depicts a sombre figure seated at a table with a plucked chicken waiting to be carved.
Measuring 2ft 10in x 2ft 9in (75 x 73cm) and in the original frame, it is thought to be one of many works from this period to explore the aftermath of the partition of the Indian subcontinent.
In August 1947 Khanna and his family had been forced to flee south from the newly created state of Pakistan with thousands of other Hindus.
The estimate for the painting was certainly modest for an artist whose work has made over $200,000 on several occasions, with Khanna’s auction record (set in India where most of his paintings appear for sale) now close to $500,000.
