M F Husain
(1915 - 2011)
Untitled
Born in 1915, Maqbool Fida Husain was a founding member of the Mumbai based Progressive Artists' Group and remains one of the country's most well known modernists. A self-taught artist for the most part, Husain's work, since his first exhibition in 1947, has either inspired or accommodated almost all of the trends and traditions that marked the development of modern Indian art over the last half-century. As Shiv Kapur noted,...
Born in 1915, Maqbool Fida Husain was a founding member of the Mumbai based Progressive Artists' Group and remains one of the country's most well known modernists. A self-taught artist for the most part, Husain's work, since his first exhibition in 1947, has either inspired or accommodated almost all of the trends and traditions that marked the development of modern Indian art over the last half-century. As Shiv Kapur noted, "...Husain is the harbinger of a new mood in Indian art. This is a mood at once self-assured in its use of universal idioms of artistic expression, contemporary in outlook and experience, socially committed, and deeply humanistic in its exploration of the nature of reality" (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv Kapur, Husain, Harry N. Abrams Inc., New York, 1972, p. 28). The present lot, a monumental and visionary abstract painting, was created spontaneously by Husain on a visit to the Camlin factory in 1970, using the materials and largest canvas size they used to produce. This unusual, heavily textured painting is a testament to both the artist's creative vision and his mastery of the medium. Also reflected in this epic painting are the skills, product and scale with which Husain began his foray into the world of art in the late 1930s: painting huge cinema billboards on the streets of Mumbai. Contrasting a throbbing golden orb on the right with a cool, aqueous ground on the left, the artist is perhaps alluding to the universal, cyclical dichotomies that inform nature and the universe. Within the blue, Husain also paints what appears to be the face of a man, along with his hands that hold a flute to his lips. Almost indistinct against the swirling blue behind him, the flautist recalls the figure of Lord Krishna, the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu, the supreme preserver who balances the forces of creation and destruction.
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Lot
24
of
70
SUMMER ART AUCTION 2012
19-20 JUNE 2012
Estimate
Rs 1,40,00,000 - 1,80,00,000
$259,260 - 333,335
ARTWORK DETAILS
M F Husain
Untitled
Signed in Devnagari and dated in English (lower right)
1970
Oil on canvas
59 x 136 in (149.9 x 345.4 cm)
PROVENANCE: Formerly in the Camlin Collection
Category: Painting
Style: Figurative
ARTWORK SIZE:
Height of Figure: 6'