Important Notice

M.F. Husain's extensive oeuvre draws inspiration from global urban culture as well as several different Indian historical and traditional sources. From the classical aesthetics of Gupta and Chola sculpture, the artist learnt to communicate the movement of dance, the rhythm of music, and the sensuousness of the human form. From the Basholi miniature tradition, Husain developed his vivid palette and understood the varied ways in which the painted... M.F. Husain's extensive oeuvre draws inspiration from global urban culture as well as several different Indian historical and traditional sources. From the classical aesthetics of Gupta and Chola sculpture, the artist learnt to communicate the movement of dance, the rhythm of music, and the sensuousness of the human form. From the Basholi miniature tradition, Husain developed his vivid palette and understood the varied ways in which the painted surface could be structured. Finally, he imbibed the rough innocence of India's varied folk art traditions. It was in the convergence of all these elements, that the artist's unique modern Indian idiom was born.

Husain first travelled to Kerala in the 1960s, where he was immediately struck by the beauty and fecundity of the land as well as its rich cultural traditions, particularly its music and dance. In the present lot, a large tribute to Kerala from this period, Husain represents the Southern Indian state's verdant beauty through one of his favourite subjects, the female figure. As the artist once noted, "If Kashmir is all about men and mountains, Kerala is about women and nature" ("Foreword", God's Own Country, Books Today, New Delhi, 2003, p. IX).

Here Husain paints four women seated in different positions and involved in different tasks ranging from bathing to tending cooking fish. The figures overlap with several large leaves, including those of the banana palms so characteristic of Kerala. Using a palette of greens, browns and whites, the artist aimed to reproduce the "three or four subdued and silent colours of Kerala's Kalyani Kutty" or enigmatic woman. In his autobiography he asks, "The simplicity of white, the seduction of green and the teasing scent of the brown body - where to these heavenly colours come from?" ("Kerala's Kalyani Kutty", M.F. Husain Where Art Thou with Khalid Mohamed, M.F. Husain Foundation and Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2002, p. 238).

The artist returned to Kerala several times following the 1960s, and in the early 2000s was invited by the Government of Kerala to paint a series of canvases to illustrate Shashi Tharoor's book on the state titled 'God's Own Country' and help promote Kerala tourism. In the present lot as well as this later series titled 'Kalyanikuttiyude Keralam', referring to the state's extraordinary women, "The artist ...tries to recapture the splendid beauty of Kerala and unique features of its social life through the eyes of an emblematic Malayali woman who blends tradition and modernity in her persona" ("M F Husain's series on 'God's Own Country'", Times of India, April 12, 2003).

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