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Lot 6

 

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Painted in 1959, Tile Factory highlights K K Hebbar's command over colour orchestration, texture, composition and perspective. With the precision of an architectural rendering and the deep understanding of light and tonal variations, Hebbar captures the essence of daily life in the working class setting of his painting. It is possible that this work is based on a tile factory that faced his studio in Mumbai, where he witnessed a workers'... Painted in 1959, Tile Factory highlights K K Hebbar's command over colour orchestration, texture, composition and perspective. With the precision of an architectural rendering and the deep understanding of light and tonal variations, Hebbar captures the essence of daily life in the working class setting of his painting. It is possible that this work is based on a tile factory that faced his studio in Mumbai, where he witnessed a workers' movement. The artist's daughter Rekha Rao recalls, "In 1956, we lived in Mahim a suburb of Mumbai... Below was a tile and brick making factory which hummed with activity; we could see workers sieve sand and cement and engage in construction work. He would observe these men and women with their careworn faces going about their work calmly." (Kishore Singh ed., "K. K. Hebbar: The House the Brick Layers Built," Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art, New Delhi: DAG Modern, 2016, p. 196)

The present lot was selected for publication as a double page spread in the Lalit Kala Akademi's mini series on the artist in 1960. V R Amberkar singled the painting out as an "example in evidence" of design and form. "It is at once intense and emotionalised. Hebbar is not satisfied with a competent statement of mere facts. He renders this statement intensely personal and at the same time expressive of a particular feeling... Hebbar's sympathies are with the humblest of the earth. This has coloured his art in a peculiar manner. The grandeur of vast open spaces, the majesty of natural elements or histrionics of opulence and power are rarely touched in his work. His vision spans a personal, intensely natural drama of human joys and sorrows on a normal level... Tile Factory indicate[s] a maturity and control over the means and materials with which Hebbar has been painting for the last twenty-five years." (V R Amberkar, Hebbar: Contemporary Series of Indian Art, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, pp. iv, vi)

Hebbar was born in Kattingeri, in South Kanara. His training at the Sir J J School of Art in the 1930s was in a formal, academic style, which he attempted to break out of in the 1940s. He travelled to Europe and studied at the Academie Julian in Paris, where he encountered the works of Matisse and Braque. This influenced his style and is reflected in the nuanced variations of colour and space which was especially pronounced in paintings made during the following decade.

Hebbar "tried to bring out the active life-spirit within India's rustic village folk, the poor and the ordinary people of his surroundings. He arrived at a point in life when tranquillity and detachment prevail in his works, promoting the possibility of inward contemplation and search. The expression of reality with utmost simplicity has been his aim throughout, and calmness and quietude helped his creation." (Pran Nath Mago, "Some Consequential Contemporary Artists of India," Contemporary Art in India: A Perspective, New Delhi: National Book Trust, India, 2001, p. 147)

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