Important Notice

“Each time, I have tried to bring out the active life-spirit hidden within rustic village folk; the poor and ordinary people of my surroundings. I have arrived at a point in my life when tranquillity and detachment prevail, promoting the possibility of inward contemplation and search. Expression of reality with the utmost simplicity has been my aim throughout.” - K K HEBBAR

One of India’s earliest modern artists, K K Hebbar was... “Each time, I have tried to bring out the active life-spirit hidden within rustic village folk; the poor and ordinary people of my surroundings. I have arrived at a point in my life when tranquillity and detachment prevail, promoting the possibility of inward contemplation and search. Expression of reality with the utmost simplicity has been my aim throughout.” - K K HEBBAR

One of India’s earliest modern artists, K K Hebbar was trained in the Western academic tradition at Bombay’s J J School of Art in the 1930s, followed by the Académie Julian in Paris. Although he initially won acclaim for his landscapes, portraits, and figurative works, which he began painting in the academic style on graduating from art school, he soon sought to formulate a personal idiom free from its restraints. He turned to India’s historic artistic traditions and found inspiration in Jain manuscript illustrations, Rajput and Mughal miniature paintings, and the murals of Ajanta. He also incorporated aspects of Western modernism into his work and experimented widely with different styles. Reflecting on his approach, he has remarked, “From the very beginning of my life as a painter it has been my aim to be able to express my joys and sorrows through colour and line as freely as a child expresses its hunger by crying or its joy through laughter. For this purpose, I had to learn the vocabulary of art and also draw sustenance from the vast treasure accumulated from the past and practiced at present all over the world.” (K K Hebbar, “Voyage in Images”, Voyage in Images, Mumbai: Jehangir Art Gallery, 1991)

The rural environment of Kattingeri, a tiny village in Karnataka’s South Kanara district where Hebbar was born, left an indelible mark on his artistic style. People, particularly the working class frequently became central subjects in the artist’s work, appearing as protagonists or populating the larger landscape, either engaged in their daily labour or absorbed in leisure activities. He once wrote, “The human figure, and human joy and sorrow, occupied an important place in my compositions. Because of my love for humanity in general and the working-class in particular, I have often chosen subjects depicting the life of the down-trodden and under-privileged…” (Hebbar, 1991)

Hebbar’s empathy for the common man is evident in the present lot which depicts a farmer ploughing his field with the help of two oxen. The figures are painted with a lyricism that highlights the sensitivity and strength of his line, an element that was vital to his work. He uses taut, economical lines to delineate the farmer and convey the laborious movement of the oxen across the field. Art historian Veena K Thimmaiah observes, “Hebbar’s line reveals both the physical nature and the emotional and personal character of his subject. There is a hidden beauty in his rhythmic interplay of lines, which are creative rather than imitative.” (Veena K Thimmaiah, “KK Hebbar: Beats”, Hebbar: An Artist’s Quest, K G Subramanyan, Veena K Thimmaiah et al, Bengaluru: NGMA and K K Hebbar Art Foundation, 2011, p. 24) The intrinsic rhythm of Hebbar’s lines was grounded in his deep interest in classical music and dance. Having trained in Kathak for two years under Pandit Sunder Prasad (the guru of renowned master Briju Maharaj), he translated his understanding of rhythm and movement into fluid “singing lines”-as writer Mulk Raj Anand called them-in his artwork. The present lot is also a fine example of the distinctive oil painting technique Hebbar employed later in his career. He layered coats of paint over a titanium white base (chosen for its opacity and high tinting strength), often scraping away one layer to build up another over it, creating a textured surface typical of many of his works. Artist and critic V R Amberkar notes, “Painting in flat masses easily simulated Indianness but then after seeing the works of modern masters like Matisse and Braque, Hebbar’s paintings became free of chiaroscuro. The shaded portions of his compositions, instead of being merely tonal and graded, now became virtually coloured passages from dark to light and from hard to soft colour orchestration.” (V R Amberkar, “Krishna Hebbar”, Hebbar, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, p. iii)

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