KATTINGERI KRISHNA HEBBAR | UNTITLED (SUNSET)

Gifted by a friend in Bombay, circa mid-1960s

Thence by descent

‘'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 hunger by crying or its joy by laughter. For this purpose I had to learn the vocabulary of art and also to draw sustenance from the vast treasure accumulated from the past and practiced at present all over the world." (K. K. Hebbar, Voyage in Images, Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay, 1991, unpaginated)

One of India’s earliest modern painters, Kattingeri Krishna Hebbar (popularly known as K. K. Hebbar) is of great importance in the history of Indian art. Educated at the Sir J. J. School of Art in Bombay, he decisively rejected the academic realist technique he had assimilated there, instead seeking a compelling personal style that better suited the themes he yearned to explore. He was greatly inspired by classical Indian art forms – the murals of Ajanta, Jain manuscripts, the miniature tradition of the Mughal and Rajput courts – whilst simultaneously influenced by the Western art styles he encountered while studying at the Académie Julian in Paris, as well as the work of Paul Gauguin and Amrita Sher-Gil. Ultimately, Hebbar sought to formulate a personal artistic idiom that encapsulated not merely a visual but a sensory response to his subjects and surroundings. This intention is adeptly achieved in the current lot, an atmospheric sunset painted in 1965. The vibrant colour and rich texture of the work convey a delight and exultation in the glowing waterscape, and a particular exuberance unique to Hebbar’s artistic style.