Important Notice

Lot 46

Born in 1911, Hebbar was one of India`s earliest modern painters, leading the way for many others. Although he was trained in the academic realist style, the artist soon found that it restricted the development of his personal idiom, turning instead to indigenous folk art and modern European painting for inspiration. “Explorative and experimental in his approach, Hebbar`s art displayed a number of styles, from the figurative to the near... Born in 1911, Hebbar was one of India`s earliest modern painters, leading the way for many others. Although he was trained in the academic realist style, the artist soon found that it restricted the development of his personal idiom, turning instead to indigenous folk art and modern European painting for inspiration. “Explorative and experimental in his approach, Hebbar`s art displayed a number of styles, from the figurative to the near abstract, and the dichotomy between the two did not generate any discord in his working for he believed that each painting developed in accordance to its own logic. Hebbar`s artistic oeuvre was a synthesis of eclectic influences” (Amrita Gupta Singh, Manifestations III: 100 Artists, Delhi Art Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, 2005, unpaginated).

In this piece from 1973, titled Drought, Hebbar`s unique combination of Indian and Western artistic techniques is evident, as is his deep concern for the people of India, whose plight he closely followed and reflected in his work. On this canvas, “…where a human tragedy assumes universal significance, the deprived domestic spaces and solemn colors symbolized a painful contemporary reality. The painting amalgamates the artist`s exploration of the Impressionistic brushstrokes of the Bonnard school and the pictorial qualities of folk art, and demonstrates an individualistic sensibility acutely observant of his social realities” (Ibid.). In addition to the `deprived` dwellings and starving figure within them, Hebbar masterfully uses color and texture to portray the cause of these farmers` troubles on this canvas: fields parched by a fierce sun, vegetation that barely surviving, and a stream that has almost run dry.

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