Kattingeri Krishna Hebbar (1911 - 1996)

Hebbar travelled to Europe in 1949, for a period of practical training at the Academie Julian in Paris.  On his return to India, he painted a series of works on dancers and musicians, inspired, perhaps, by his own lessons in Kathak.  'He attempted to infuse the paintings with the soothing quality of Indian music, and rhythms of folk and classical dance.  In works like Veena (1973), he sought to express sound as colour: the musician and his instrument disintegrate; vibrant colours dominate the canvas, echoing sound waves.' (Amrita Jhaveri, A Guide to 101 Modern and Contemporary Indian Artists, Mumbai, 2005, p 22).  The current work from 1969 has a similar feel with colors rather than form dominating the canvas.