Krishna Reddy, Demonstrators (1968): The Friday Find

17 - 24 July 2026
Krishna Reddy, Demonstrators (1968), The Friday Find

"Reddy’s protesting figures emphasised his belief in the power of a unified collective."

 

This week we have two of Krishna Reddy’s Demonstrator works. Powerful images created in response to the 1968 protests that began in Paris and spread throughout France.

  • Reddy was born in a village near Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, in 1925. His father was an agricultural worker who also painted temple murals. Reddy studied under Nandalal Bose at Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan. For a time, he taught at a Montessori teacher-training college in Chennai before moving to London in 1949 to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he was taught by Henry Moore.

  • “In 1949, Reddy arrived in Europe, already a seasoned activist from Gandhi’s Quit India Movement and having lived through the...

    “In 1949, Reddy arrived in Europe, already a seasoned activist from Gandhi’s Quit India Movement and having lived through the end of colonialism in India.” 

     

    There he met Constantin Brâncuși (no Nicole Kidman), studied sculpture under Ossip Zadikine and engraving under Stanley Hayter. Later in the ‘50s he trained under Mario Marini in Milan at the Brera Academy. Marini was also said to have been an influence on the work of Husain.

  • Krishna Reddy, Demonstrators, 1968

    Krishna Reddy

    Demonstrators, 1968

    He returned to Paris, working in the 1960s at Hayter’s Atelier 17, an artist’s workshop with a fascinating history.  There is a website called ‘The Atelier 17 Project’ with more information on the history of the studio and its members.

     

    While his best-known works depict abstract motifs inspired by nature, Reddy’s early work depicted refugees and Bengal famine victims as emaciated, elongated figures. This imagery would persist throughout his career.

     

    His time in Paris during the 1950s and ‘60s exposed him to France’s reckoning with its colonial past and the Algerian War.  This week we have a sculpture and etching depicting a universal and rather timely subject matter – that of the demonstrator.

     

    Enquire: Sculpture
  • Krishna Reddy’s Demonstration works emerged amidst the fervent atmosphere of Paris in 1968, a year resonating with cultural, social, and...

    Installation shot of Krishna Reddy: Heaven in a Wildflower, The Print Centre New York, 2025

    Krishna Reddy’s Demonstration works emerged amidst the fervent atmosphere of Paris in 1968, a year resonating with cultural, social, and political upheavals across the Western world;

     

    “In mid-May 1968, more than eight hundred thousand demonstrators—including Reddy—marched through the city to denounce imperialism, industrial capitalism, and the authoritarian bureaucratic Gaullist regime. Protests soon spread through France and some ten million people, a majority of the French workforce, eventually went on strike.

     

    ‘Amidst the backdrop of widespread civic unrest and government crackdowns in France, Reddy’s sculptures captured the essence of solidarity and frustration that permeated the streets of Paris and beyond.”

     

    With these works Reddy encapsulates the tumultuous events of 1968 and the resilience of the populace. A line of figures arm in arm against the opposition, an impassable wall.

  • Krishna Reddy, Demonstrators, 1968

    Krishna Reddy

    Demonstrators, 1968

    He created two sculptural forms: a single protestor, as well as a line of figures, rendered in bronze, and in resin - as well as a coloured etching, created using his viscosity printing technique – the technique shown above in this video.

     

    At the gallery we have a version of the resin sculpture, as well as an edition of his print, also titled Demonstrators.  Both come from private French collections.

     

    I should point you towards some very good sources of reference: the 2025 exhibition of his work at the Print Centre New York, the 2017 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and a page dedicated to the artist on the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.  The catalogue for that exhibition can be found here, and it contains fantastic texts and images.

    Enquire: Print

  • Artwork details

    • Krishna Reddy Demonstrators, 1968 Resin cast with bronze patina 27.9 x 38.1 x 10.2 cm 11 x 15 x 4 in Signed on the base
      Krishna Reddy
      Demonstrators, 1968
      Resin cast with bronze patina
      27.9 x 38.1 x 10.2 cm
      11 x 15 x 4 in
      Signed on the base
      Enquire
    • Krishna Reddy Demonstrators, 1968 Etching on paper Image: 34 x 44 cm Sheet: 50 x 65 cm Signed, titled and inscribed 'E.A 2/10 "Demonstrators" A. Krishna Reddy'
      Krishna Reddy
      Demonstrators, 1968
      Etching on paper
      Image: 34 x 44 cm
      Sheet: 50 x 65 cm
      Signed, titled and inscribed 'E.A 2/10 "Demonstrators" A. Krishna Reddy'
      Enquire

  • References and further reading:

     

    There is a very good text published on these works by Jennifer Farrell and Navina Najat Haidar; Turbulent Times: New Relevance for Krishna Reddy's Demonstrators, which accompanied the 2017 exhibition Workshop and Legacy: Stanley William Hayter, Krishna Reddy, Zarina Hashmi, which took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

     

    Here is a link to watch the lecture given at the Met on the work of Reddy and Zarina Hashimi, and the legacy of Hayter’s Atelier 17.

     

    Krishna Reddy: Heaven in a Wildflower, Print Centre New York, 2025

    Audio guide