Still Life of Vase with Red Flowers

KH Ara was one of the founding members of the PAG. His artistic expressions were characterised by robust nudes and still lifes, marked by a life-affirming positivity and zeal. He was a self-taught artist who ran away from home to pursue his artistic career in Bombay. His take on art and artistic processes was that of direct reportage, the intent was neither to shock the audience nor hark back to classical and folk art. Ara managed to turn this art of the everyday into a potentially sensuous form, also becoming the first Indian artists to paint nudes from life. For him, the language of art preceded all other social and political motivations. His process and products were intuitive and spontaneous, not deliberate or ‘intellectual’. His was art for art’s sake, and in this way, he was a true modernist.

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