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Lot Essay
In the late sixties Husain embarked on a tour throughout India and was heavily inspired by village life which he idealised as being close to the essence of Indian sensibility. Building upon the themes he expressed in his landmark work, Zameen at the NGMA, New Delhi, the present work moves beyond expression of sentiment to show Husain's admiration for women as the foundation of society who often predominate village and home affairs.
"The central concern of Husain's art, and its dominant motif, is woman []. Man, in Husain's view, is dynamic only in heroism. He is diminished by confusion and broken by unbelief, and these are unheroic and unbelieving times. Spiritually, woman is more enduring. Pain comes naturally to her, as do compassion and a sense of birth and death of things. In Husain's work, woman has the gift of eagerness [] and an inward attentiveness, as if she were listening to the life coursing within her." (R. Bartholomew and S. S.
Kumar, Husain, New York, 1972, p. 46)
"The central concern of Husain's art, and its dominant motif, is woman []. Man, in Husain's view, is dynamic only in heroism. He is diminished by confusion and broken by unbelief, and these are unheroic and unbelieving times. Spiritually, woman is more enduring. Pain comes naturally to her, as do compassion and a sense of birth and death of things. In Husain's work, woman has the gift of eagerness [] and an inward attentiveness, as if she were listening to the life coursing within her." (R. Bartholomew and S. S.
Kumar, Husain, New York, 1972, p. 46)