Page 140 - AstaGuru Modern Odyssey

Lot No. 98

K H ARA
1914-1985

UNTITLED
30 x 40 in (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
Oil on canvas
Circa 1980
Signed: Verso

` 30,00,000 - 40,00,000 | $ 36,585 - 48,780

Exhibited: At the House of Soviet Culture (now knows as Russian
Centre for Science and Culture) during the early 1980s.

Provenance: Property from a collection based in Mumbai. Artwork
was acquired by the present owner directly from the artist.

Recognised as one of the most senior names in Modern Indi-
an Art, Krishnaji Howlaji Ara was an exceptional talent whose
artistic brilliance was a result of sheer passion, hard work and
dedication. One of his biggest contributions to Modern Indian
Art was his unique interpretation of the female nude and still-
life. He was also one of the founding members of the revolu-
tionary Bombay Progressive Artists Group alongside F.N.Souza
and S.H.Raza.

Born in 1914, the artist came from very humble antecedents and
battled many struggles in his early life. Ara ran away to Bom-
bay, where he started working as a domestic help at an Eng-
lish household. Many years later, he found employment as a car
cleaner with a Japanese firm, which also offered him accom-
modation in a tiny room in Walkeshwar, Bombay.

It was in the solitude that Ara found the inspiration to fulfil his
urge to draw and paint. So masterful was the appeal of his
works that they soon caught the attention of renowned art crit-
ics Rudy von Leyden and Walter Langhammer.
A landmark moment of his career was when his first solo
exhibition took place in 1942 in Bombay.