Important Notice

Lot 67

Krishnaji Howlaji Ara was born in semi-rural Andhra Pradesh in 1914, the son of a bus driver. It was only when he ran away from home and became a domestic servant in Bombay that his talent for painting was spotted by Rudi von Leyden, a great supporter of indigenous artists. Entirely self-taught, Ara was a founding member of the Progressive Artists` Group, holding his first solo show at Chetna Restaurant in 1942.

Following his... Krishnaji Howlaji Ara was born in semi-rural Andhra Pradesh in 1914, the son of a bus driver. It was only when he ran away from home and became a domestic servant in Bombay that his talent for painting was spotted by Rudi von Leyden, a great supporter of indigenous artists. Entirely self-taught, Ara was a founding member of the Progressive Artists` Group, holding his first solo show at Chetna Restaurant in 1942.

Following his involvement with the struggle for Indian independence, his complex depictions of its events, and a short period of painting still life, Ara turned to the classical modernist form of the nude in the 1960s. For Ara, the nude was not overtly sexual or even attractive, but “just another device to study paint textures as a means of extending his painterly language… He was not involved with the anatomy of the figure nor with forms of realism. He was seeking a means of extending his language in colour, form, and composition and the nudes became an important component of this” (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 138, 139).

The subjects of these paintings, like the woman portrayed in the present lot, usually had their backs to the viewer. Rendered in established poses, the lines and curves of these nudes resonated with those of the elements of still life and landscape that Ara added to the scene, whether drapery or flower vases. “It is characteristic of Ara that the nude, whose bodily contours are prominently outlined, has her back to the viewer and maintains an impassive quality that draws from the still life” (Gayatri Sinha in Modern Indian Works on Paper, J V Zimmerli Art Museum Exhibition Catalogue, 2006, p. 12). Interestingly, Ara has chosen to portray another painting, a frontal nude, as part of the background in this work.

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