K.H. Ara

Krishnaji Howlaji Ara, a founder member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, was born in Secunderabad on 16 April 1914, but ran away to Bombay as a child.

Much later, his skills as a painter were spotted by Austrian artist and art director of The Times of India, Walter Langhammer, who encouraged him in his artistic pursuit. A self-taught artist, Ara grew up in adverse conditions and was imprisoned for participating in Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha movement. He evolved his trademark style—especially his robust nudes and still-life paintings—that is ineffably marked by a life-affirming zeitgeist.

In his art practice, Ara neither wished to shock with raw eroticism as Souza did, nor did he want to revisit folk art in the manner of Husain. He was a modernist for whom the form and language of art preceded all other social and political motivations. His art was always intuitive, imaginative, spontaneous and improvised and not deliberate or intellectual. This evolved a certain eclecticism which was neither imitative nor derivative but led him on an exploration of style on a kind of rambling journey.

Ara won several awards, beginning with the annual prizes of the Bombay Art Society, the Governor’s Prize, and an award from U.N.E.S.C.O., all before Independence. He was the founder and secretary of the Artists’ Aid Centre and trustee of the Jehangir Art Gallery, both in Bombay, and was both fellow and general council member of the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. He passed away on 30 June 1985.