Clown and Flying Swans

Krishna Reddy’s prints are always an engrossing study of pulsating energy, containing swift movements or teeming with forms that demand attention. This holds true for the work in consideration here but is more special because it is one of the earliest of his famous series featuring clowns. It was in 1978, just a year before this work was made, that Reddy took his daughter to a circus in New York and got mesmerised by the clown himself, making it one of the leitmotifs of his art in the next two decades. The clown takes centrality in this work, its animated eyes, nose and mouth drawing immediate attention.