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Lot 8

 

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“Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter’s command to express his feelings.” - K H ARA

Some of K H Ara’s earliest compositions, prior to his turn towards still lifes and nudes in the late 1940s were studies of everyday life in society. They “were based on human situations, which he turned into compositions much in the manner of textbook life studies. These were generic studies... “Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter’s command to express his feelings.” - K H ARA

Some of K H Ara’s earliest compositions, prior to his turn towards still lifes and nudes in the late 1940s were studies of everyday life in society. They “were based on human situations, which he turned into compositions much in the manner of textbook life studies. These were generic studies of fishing trawlers, men and women at wedding receptions and horse-riders, akin to the academic studies taught in art school and reminiscent of turn-of-the-century painters like Dhurandhar and Abalal Rahiman.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “The Stillness of Life: Krishnaji Howlaji Ara,” The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 129)

The present lot, which depicts a daily scene from a fish market is not just reminiscent of the detailed and attentive manner in which Ara approached these early studies, but also indicative of the life and vigour that were captured in his depictions of everyday human life. The spirit of India’s independence movement, which Ara was involved in, also manifested in his works from the time. In the mid 1940s, “the country’s freedom struggle was gathering pace. Ara was increasingly drawn to it,... At this time he was still experimenting with academic realism, and some of his paintings of the period show him painting the surging multitudes in a cadence that was mesmeric.” (Kishore Singh ed., “Krishnaji Howlaji Ara: The Still Meaning of Life,” Continuum: Progressive Artists’ Group, New Delhi: DAG, 2011, pp. 200-202)

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