Important Notice

“I have tried to bring out the active life-spirit hidden within rustic village folk; the poor and ordinary people of my surroundings.”
- K K HEBBAR

Born in 1911, K K Hebbar was a pioneer of modern Indian art who paved the way for future generations of artists. Though he trained in the Western academic tradition at Bombay’s J J School of Art in the 1930s and later at the Académie Julian in Paris, he soon found these approaches... “I have tried to bring out the active life-spirit hidden within rustic village folk; the poor and ordinary people of my surroundings.”
- K K HEBBAR

Born in 1911, K K Hebbar was a pioneer of modern Indian art who paved the way for future generations of artists. Though he trained in the Western academic tradition at Bombay’s J J School of Art in the 1930s and later at the Académie Julian in Paris, he soon found these approaches inadequate for the further development of his own artistic vision. In search of a more authentic and personal expression, Hebbar turned to India’s rich visual heritage, drawing inspiration from Jain manuscript illustrations, Rajput and Mughal miniatures, and the ancient murals of Ajanta. He masterfully blended these influences together with elements of Western modernism and across a range of styles throughout his career. Reflecting on his practice, Hebbar once shared, “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, Mumbai: Jehangir Art Gallery, 1991)

The present lot was painted shortly after Hebbar’s 1959 visit to Indonesia on the invitation of Dr Roger Lewis who worked for the World Health Organisation and whose wife was a dedicated patron of the artist. During his travels across the Indonesian archipelago, which included stops at Bali and Jakarta, he filled a sketchbook with vivid impressions of local life and culture.

Though the artist later forayed into abstraction, his works are grounded in a deeply humanist lens. 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)

This empathetic approach was shaped by Hebbar’s own upbringing in the tiny rural village of Kattingeri in Karnataka’s South Kanara district. Ordinary people, particularly the working class frequently became central subjects in his work. This sense of kinship with the common man is evident in the subjects of the present lot, a fisherwoman selling her catch and fishermen at work in the background. As critic V R Amberkar has remarked, “Hebbar is not satisfied with a competent statement of mere facts. He renders the statement intensely personal and at the same time expressive of a particularised feeling. His builders and fishermen and women at their daily work assume a life of feeling.” (V R Amberkar, “Krishna Hebbar”, Contemporary Series of Indian Art: Hebbar, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, p. 6)

The flat pictorial perspective of the composition reflects the influence of Indian miniature paintings on Hebbar’s art, while the fluidity of the figures reveal his agility as a draughtsman. He paints them with a lyricism informed by his engagement with classical music and dance. Having trained in Kathak for two years under Pandit Sunder Prasad (the guru of the legendary Briju Maharaj), he translated his understanding of rhythm and movement into what writer Mulk Raj Anand called his “singing lines”. Hebbar brings this scene to life through a distinctive impasto technique that he developed over time. Art historian Veena K Thimmaiah explains: “The paint was applied in thick layers, but they were in contrasting or divergent shades. Instead of using impasto solely for textural purposes, Hebbar layered different hues, one over the other. The colours gleam like a thousand gems or smoulder like the embers of a dying fire, scintillating in the light. He loved the feeling of vibrant colours appearing in minute cracks and pin pricks through a thick layer of contrasting colour.” (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. 27)

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