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that any of the waiters at the cafe could be a Christ figure. concerns, such as the plight of the labouring classes,
In the artist’s own words, ‘The Christ series are set here the corruption of figures placed in authority and the
in Delhi, Nizamuddin in fact, and appear as current persecution of the poor by those that they have placed in
happenings. He is wandering amongst us or sleeping with power.
us... I painted Jesus, not in the image given by European
painters, but as one of the fakirs one sees around Hazrat The current work, done in 1979, preceded an exhibition of
Nizammuddin.’ (Interview with Chanda Singh, India thirteen works done the following year at Rabindra Bhavan
Magazine, September 1984) on the theme of Christ’s betrayal. It could well be a
preparatory drawing or a study for one of the larger works
In his Emmaus works, Khanna intentionally blurs the in that exhibition. Khanna has painted many versions of
boundaries of the biblical themes, allowing the work a less Emmaus right through the 1970s up until the present day. It
specifically religious significance. He uses references from is a theme that strikes resonance with his larger artistic
The Bible within an entirely local context, and by doing so, concerns as an artist working amidst the urban masses
their symbolism becomes related to modern day social in Delhi.
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