Skip navigation

Main menu

  • What's on
  • Art & Artists
    • The Collection
      Artists
      Artworks
      Art by theme
      Media
      Videos
      Podcasts
      Short articles
      Learning
      Art Terms
      Tate Research
      Student resources
      Art Making
      Create like an artist
      Kids art activities
      Tate Draw game
  • Visit
  • Shop
Become a Member
  • DISCOVER ART
  • ARTISTS A-Z
  • ARTWORK SEARCH
  • ART BY THEME
  • VIDEOS
  • ART TERMS
  • STUDENT RESOURCES
  • TATE KIDS
  • RESEARCH
  • Tate Britain
    Tate Britain Free admission
  • Tate Modern
    Tate Modern Free admission
  • Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
    Tate Liverpool + RIBA North Free admission
  • Tate St Ives
    Tate St Ives Ticket or membership card required
  • FAMILIES
  • ACCESSIBILITY
  • SCHOOLS
  • PRIVATE TOURS
Tate Logo
Become a Member
Back to Modern and Contemporary British Art

Balraj Khanna, Out of the Blue (2), 1987 © Courtesy of the Estate of Balraj Khanna.

Balraj Khanna Theatre of the Natural World

13 rooms in Modern and Contemporary British Art

  • Fear and Freedom
  • Construction
  • Creation and Destruction
  • In Full Colour
  • Franciszka Themerson
  • Ideas into Action
  • Henry Moore
  • Francis Bacon and Henry Moore
  • Balraj Khanna
  • No Such Thing as Society
  • End of a Century
  • The State We're In
  • Zineb Sedira

In these poetic, abstract paintings Balraj Khanna explores ideas of nature, community, imagination and the unconscious

Born in the Punjab region of India in 1939, Balraj Khanna was an artist, writer and curator. He moved to the UK in 1962 intending to further his studies in English literature, but instead discovered a passion for drawing and painting. Within months of his arrival in London, Khanna found a community of fellow artists, including the painters F.N. Souza (1924–2002) and Avinash Chandra (1931–1991). By 1964 he was a member of the Indian Painters Collective, a group that advocated for the representation of Indian artists in Britain.

In 1965, a lengthy period of recuperation from a road accident sparked a change in Khanna’s painting style. Recovering next to the Forêt St-Bernard in Metz, France, Khanna felt connected to nature for the first time since leaving India. He credited this time with instilling ‘a new force’ in his practice, inspiring his multi-layered abstract works. Incorporating organic and geometric forms, Khanna sought to express what he called ‘the theatre of the natural world’.

Khanna continued to experiment with new techniques and materials including string, sand and stencils to create vibrant surfaces that burst with life. His distinctive forms are ambiguous yet familiar. They suggest a range of images, from plants and animals to the toys and kites of his childhood.

Khanna had his first solo exhibition in 1965, and in the decades that followed he exhibited widely in the UK, France and United States. This display celebrates Tate’s recent acquisition of three major paintings and is presented in affectionate memory of the artist, who passed away in January 2024.

Read more

Tate Britain
Main Floor
Room 24

Getting Here

Until 21 April 2025

Free

Balraj Khanna, Discourse of the Wonderer  1967

1/7
artworks in Balraj Khanna

More on this artwork

Balraj Khanna, Such a Long Journey  1967–1968

2/7
artworks in Balraj Khanna

More on this artwork

Balraj Khanna, Garden  1987

3/7
artworks in Balraj Khanna

More on this artwork

Balraj Khanna, Autumn Forest  1965

The warm brown tones of this painting, peppered with bursts of orange and yellow, are scored by grid-like markings. Khanna simultaneously evokes a macro and micro impression of the forest, suggesting both an aerial landscape and the grooves of a tree’s bark. This painting was made in France while Khanna recovered from a motorcycle crash. In stark contrast to London, the French town neighboured a forest. Immobilised, his leg in a cast, Khanna recalled lying in the grass: ‘I felt as if I had never seen trees before in all my existence.’

Gallery label, August 2024

4/7
artworks in Balraj Khanna

More on this artwork

Balraj Khanna, Saffron Field  1967

In 1966 Khanna began embedding string into his compositions, arranging it in twisting curves under layers of paint. Here, Khanna removed the string, allowing its white imprint to break through the sea of vivid orange. This rich saffron colour is highly symbolic in Indian culture. For Khanna it represented fire and purity. Working intuitively, Khanna allowed the string to determine the composition, adding geometric and organic forms into its intersections and bends. He explained, ‘I start feeling the structure of a painting – like a musician composing a raga and creating a feeling.’

Gallery label, August 2024

5/7
artworks in Balraj Khanna

More on this artwork

Balraj Khanna, Festival  1970

Stretching over three and a half metres in length, this painting is an expanse of leaping, tangled forms simultaneously exploding and contracting in space. Khanna is interested in using abstraction to explore related ideas of community and togetherness. Here, the painting’s title refers to the universal nature of festivals across all cultures and countries. This work, alongside Out of the Blue (2), was exhibited in the 1989 exhibition The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-war Britain at the Hayward Gallery, London, where Khanna served on the exhibition committee.

Gallery label, August 2024

6/7
artworks in Balraj Khanna

More on this artwork

Balraj Khanna, Out of the Blue (2)  1987

Here, Khanna incorporates sand into the painting’s surface, creating the illusion of waves or ripples. The bright colours and shimmering texture evoke a dream-like space, reminiscent of the ocean or sky. After preparing the canvas with a mixture of sand and primer, Khanna applied countless layers of paint in a fine mist. In the early 1980s he did this using a diffuser and his own breath, but later adopted a spray gun. At various intervals Khanna added stencils, removing them at the final stage to reveal a kaleidoscopic cast of characters floating weightlessly across the scene.

Gallery label, August 2024

7/7
artworks in Balraj Khanna

More on this artwork

Art in this room

Sorry, no image available

Balraj Khanna Discourse of the Wonderer 1967

Sorry, no image available

Balraj Khanna Such a Long Journey 1967–1968

Sorry, no image available

Balraj Khanna Garden 1987
X88504: Autumn Forest
Balraj Khanna Autumn Forest 1965
X88505: Saffron Field
Balraj Khanna Saffron Field 1967

Sorry, no image available

Balraj Khanna Festival 1970
X88506: Out of the Blue (2)
Balraj Khanna Out of the Blue (2) 1987
Close

Join in

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Sign up to emails

Sign up to emails

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tate’s privacy policy

About

  • About us
  • Our collection
  • Terms and copyright
  • Governance
  • Picture library
  • ARTIST ROOMS
  • Tate Kids

Support

  • Tate Collective
  • Members
  • Patrons
  • Donate
  • Corporate
  • My account
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Contact