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Lot Essay
'I have always had a feeling, and now it is confirmed, that Husain draws in paint and thinks entirely in color. This accounts greatly for the texture of his work and for the iridescent quality of the delineation of the form and design.' (S.A. Krishnan, 'Three Retrospective Exhibitions, M.F. Husain', Lalit Kala Contemporary 27 , New Delhi, April 1979, p. 21)
From 1966 on, Shiv Kapur describes Husain's works as 'shining out with an inner glow.... His lines are quiet amid colors that have the design and luminosity of stained glass. The richness of this mystic illumination is reflected in his choice of colors: glowing blues, browns, and reds from the diagonal reaches of the spectrum, lit by patches of white,... and yellow.' (Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, New York, 1986, p. 52)
One of the identifying traits of Husain's work is his characteristic use of strong bold lines that swiftly emerge on the canvas and bring it to life. This painting from 1969 is unusual, in that it is colors not lines that dominate the work. They are used in 'full awareness of their symbolic values' and there is a close relationship between composition and color that allows the figures to be identified. The work is almost an 'autonomy of colors' with very few supporting lines. (Shiv S. Kapur, Husain). Yet, he has used the colors with a dexterity that has made them both the content as well as the form.
'While time as the immediate, here-and-now communication of sensation may be abstracted from Husain's paintings, his forms and colors thus remain alive with energy. This energy in his paintings, though differently rendered, partakes of the cosmic vibration Lionello Venturi noted in the works of Rembrandt, putting figures into movement but remaining independent of them.' (Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, p. 60)
From 1966 on, Shiv Kapur describes Husain's works as 'shining out with an inner glow.... His lines are quiet amid colors that have the design and luminosity of stained glass. The richness of this mystic illumination is reflected in his choice of colors: glowing blues, browns, and reds from the diagonal reaches of the spectrum, lit by patches of white,... and yellow.' (Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, New York, 1986, p. 52)
One of the identifying traits of Husain's work is his characteristic use of strong bold lines that swiftly emerge on the canvas and bring it to life. This painting from 1969 is unusual, in that it is colors not lines that dominate the work. They are used in 'full awareness of their symbolic values' and there is a close relationship between composition and color that allows the figures to be identified. The work is almost an 'autonomy of colors' with very few supporting lines. (Shiv S. Kapur, Husain). Yet, he has used the colors with a dexterity that has made them both the content as well as the form.
'While time as the immediate, here-and-now communication of sensation may be abstracted from Husain's paintings, his forms and colors thus remain alive with energy. This energy in his paintings, though differently rendered, partakes of the cosmic vibration Lionello Venturi noted in the works of Rembrandt, putting figures into movement but remaining independent of them.' (Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, p. 60)