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Lot Essay
"I strive to absorb and assimilate principles from India's classical and folk art that I find valid for my work and to apply the varied conceptions introduced into picture-making in the West during the past 100 years. My objective is to communicate my emotional reactions and interpretations of selected aspects of life and nature by means of drawings and paintings." (S.I. Clerk and K.K. Hebbar, 'A Memoir on the Work of a Painter in India', Leonardo, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1978, p. 6)
In this painting Hebbar expresses the sense of joie de vivre, which he valued throughout his career, using one of his favourite motifs, the dancing female figure. Set in a spare landscape, the graceful dancer with bells around her ankles seems to be caught between responding to the proposal of the kneeling man besides her and walking away from him. Through the figures, and his characteristic flowing line and expressionistic application of colour, Hebbar conveys the lyricism and intimacy of this traditional courtship ritual.
"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." (Artist statement, Voyage in Images, Jehangir Art Gallery, exhibition catalogue, Mumbai, 1991, unpaginated)
In this painting Hebbar expresses the sense of joie de vivre, which he valued throughout his career, using one of his favourite motifs, the dancing female figure. Set in a spare landscape, the graceful dancer with bells around her ankles seems to be caught between responding to the proposal of the kneeling man besides her and walking away from him. Through the figures, and his characteristic flowing line and expressionistic application of colour, Hebbar conveys the lyricism and intimacy of this traditional courtship ritual.
"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." (Artist statement, Voyage in Images, Jehangir Art Gallery, exhibition catalogue, Mumbai, 1991, unpaginated)