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Lot Essay
“Husain’s women are always enshrouded in an invisible veil, the simplicity of their form countered by their inaccessibility” (Y. Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art, New Delhi, 2001, p. 111).
The portrayal of the feminine has always been an integral part of Maqbool Fida Husain’s compositions, heavily influenced by centuries of Indian visual and performing art traditions. Husain’s depictions of women are often influenced by classical Indian sculpture, with their bold statuesque forms portrayed in the typical tribhanga or triaxial pose. “Conceptually and in their modeling Husain’s figures of this time belong more to his lyric than to his archaic vein. His usual style is to structure his forms, eschewing perspective and chiaroscuro, in flat surfaces of paint, applied with the brush or the knife. The influence of traditional Indian art has been strong in shaping this style, but it is also clearly the product of his own sensibility, permeated by a sense of the archaic and the ritualistic [...] His preference for abstracted and slowly formed emotion in art, as against the immediately perceived sensation, has further strengthened the tendency to archaizing. However, as has to be observed, there is another, divergent pull which draws Husain to the rounded and active figures of dance and sculpture. These are the forms of affirmation and sensuous perception. But many of his forms inevitably come from a territory in which these two stylistic approaches overlap, and some of his compositions, in an intermixture of moods, contain both types of figures” (R. Bartholomew and S.S. Kapur, Husain, New York, 1972, p. 54).
Husain constantly returned to the theme of femininity in his art as a vehicle to express a sensibility that resonated throughout art history, from classical to contemporary. Speaking about the artist's early female figures, only a year before the present lot was painted, Bartholomew elaborated on this significance, noting, “There is a tender feeling of compassion, of trust, of an obsession with private and individual lives, of investigation into, and exploration of the provinces of passionate memory, hope, desire, and submissive doubt. This opens up for the spectator a silent world in which the dramatis personae think, and where the stances, and the coupling and grouping, suggest autonomous sensibility [...] Husain is in his most dynamic phase and his discoveries, I dare predict, will condition the shape of much of the contemporary Indian painting to come” (R. Bartholomew, ‘Forty Works by M.F. Husain’, Thought, 14 December 1957).
What the present lot also achieves is a sense of intrigue, with Husain’s witty juxtapositions of forms and figures. Behind Husain’s three anonymous women in the foreground, two heavily stylized horses prance in the distance. The horse is perhaps Husain’s most recognizable trope, seen by many as his signature motif. Yet, in this painting they are playfully relegated to the background. More playful still in this jewel-like work from 1958, is the irregular shape of the surface itself, with its diagonal right edge giving it an almost sculptural quality. Bartholomew’s prescient prediction would very much stand the test of time, as Husain would go on to become the most iconic modern Indian painter of the 20th century.
The portrayal of the feminine has always been an integral part of Maqbool Fida Husain’s compositions, heavily influenced by centuries of Indian visual and performing art traditions. Husain’s depictions of women are often influenced by classical Indian sculpture, with their bold statuesque forms portrayed in the typical tribhanga or triaxial pose. “Conceptually and in their modeling Husain’s figures of this time belong more to his lyric than to his archaic vein. His usual style is to structure his forms, eschewing perspective and chiaroscuro, in flat surfaces of paint, applied with the brush or the knife. The influence of traditional Indian art has been strong in shaping this style, but it is also clearly the product of his own sensibility, permeated by a sense of the archaic and the ritualistic [...] His preference for abstracted and slowly formed emotion in art, as against the immediately perceived sensation, has further strengthened the tendency to archaizing. However, as has to be observed, there is another, divergent pull which draws Husain to the rounded and active figures of dance and sculpture. These are the forms of affirmation and sensuous perception. But many of his forms inevitably come from a territory in which these two stylistic approaches overlap, and some of his compositions, in an intermixture of moods, contain both types of figures” (R. Bartholomew and S.S. Kapur, Husain, New York, 1972, p. 54).
Husain constantly returned to the theme of femininity in his art as a vehicle to express a sensibility that resonated throughout art history, from classical to contemporary. Speaking about the artist's early female figures, only a year before the present lot was painted, Bartholomew elaborated on this significance, noting, “There is a tender feeling of compassion, of trust, of an obsession with private and individual lives, of investigation into, and exploration of the provinces of passionate memory, hope, desire, and submissive doubt. This opens up for the spectator a silent world in which the dramatis personae think, and where the stances, and the coupling and grouping, suggest autonomous sensibility [...] Husain is in his most dynamic phase and his discoveries, I dare predict, will condition the shape of much of the contemporary Indian painting to come” (R. Bartholomew, ‘Forty Works by M.F. Husain’, Thought, 14 December 1957).
What the present lot also achieves is a sense of intrigue, with Husain’s witty juxtapositions of forms and figures. Behind Husain’s three anonymous women in the foreground, two heavily stylized horses prance in the distance. The horse is perhaps Husain’s most recognizable trope, seen by many as his signature motif. Yet, in this painting they are playfully relegated to the background. More playful still in this jewel-like work from 1958, is the irregular shape of the surface itself, with its diagonal right edge giving it an almost sculptural quality. Bartholomew’s prescient prediction would very much stand the test of time, as Husain would go on to become the most iconic modern Indian painter of the 20th century.