Important Notice

The years before the present lot was painted were a period of steadily rising success for M F Husain. From 1956 to 1961, he frequently travelled and exhibited in different parts of the world, including the Venice Biennale in 1954 and at various shows in Zurich (lot 7), Prague, Frankfurt and Rome. In 1959, he had received the International Biennale award in Tokyo. This global recognition was countered by a continued inward exploration of artistic... The years before the present lot was painted were a period of steadily rising success for M F Husain. From 1956 to 1961, he frequently travelled and exhibited in different parts of the world, including the Venice Biennale in 1954 and at various shows in Zurich (lot 7), Prague, Frankfurt and Rome. In 1959, he had received the International Biennale award in Tokyo. This global recognition was countered by a continued inward exploration of artistic experiences that were rooted in Indian subjects, themes, aesthetic traditions and practices. His vast travels through the country provided him with a large repertoire of images and motifs that appear on his canvases imbued with layers of symbolic meaning and emotive content.

In 1960, Husain and fellow Progressive Artists' Group member Ram Kumar went on a trip to Benaras. Although this journey was only a brief one for Husain, albeit a life-long one for Kumar, it impacted both artists deeply-resulting in a series of works inspired and dedicated to this holy city, including the present lot. "Twenty years since Ram Kumar and myself sailed silently close to the ghats of Varanasi, my fascination for that eternal city is ever growing... Every morning, the proverbial Morn of Benares (Subah-e-Benares) would glow in gold and we pass (sic) by many ghats without a word. Only later we break our silence at a roadside Bengali coffee house..." (Artist quoted in Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni, Husain: Riding the Lightning, Bombay: Popular Prakashan Pvt. Ltd., 1996, p. 110)

This ancient city is perhaps, paradoxically, both sacred and profane, as a site of pilgrimage and the final resting place for the remains of the dead. The various sights and sounds-the pilgrims bathing in the Ganges river, the rituals of priests and holy men, and the washing of cremated ashes down the holy river-are symbolic representations of the cycle of creation and destruction, and would have been of great significance to the artist. "All this occurs in a burning North Indian sun which mixes with the smoke of cremations to envelop the space in a colored dome. Husain has captured this dome of color through his black backgrounds, against which white traced figures become sharply energised. Figures are further activated by Husain's characteristic, shaky defining line. Some seem caught in two positions, as if in cinematic stop-motion. Figures and background are partly merged in that the figures are silhouettes filled in by background itself. There are no shadows; no light is filtered. The space seems cast as a dramatic enclosure where fate is being played out..." (Dr Daniel Herwitz, Husain, Bombay: Tata Steel, 1988, p. 17)

In the present lot, Husain separates the vertical composition into three parts: the upper third depicts the city, in the middle third are a group of people bathing at the ghats, while the lower third contains the dark, reflecting waters of the Ganges river. In an Urdu poem dedicated to Kumarwritten in the chapter "Four Friends" in his unpublished autobiography- Husain describes the differing styles in which both artists chose to paint the ancient city: "One brush played with the waves of restless Ganga. The other was still-like a centuries' old meditative trance of the Benaras ghats." (Artist quoted in Gagan Gill ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 1996, p. 209)

Here, the artist uses earthy brown tones rendered in heavy, gestural brushstrokes to suggest a sense of movement. Through a fluid combination of form and line, Husain blurs the distinction between the individuals and background, creating a uniquely singular work that is both figurative and abstraction. "On the ghats of Banaras his bathers bathe in ancient lava, so thick and grey are the encrustations of his impasto, so acute his sense of the timelessness of the ritual he saw performed on those hoary steps on the river's edge." (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S Kapur, Husain, New York: Harry N Abrams, Inc., 1971, p. 41)

Husain saw the artistic appeal of Benaras-a city whose ancient rituals endure even today-as the perfect canvas to bridge the divide between the tradition and modern. "Husain's lifelong aim has been to find a voice with which to acknowledge the richness and throes of contemporary Indian life in a way that also seeks to preserve India traditional. His art aims for the condition of Benares, in which creative innovation, although destructive, will also recycle or otherwise preserve India's roots. Husain has been signal in leading Indian art into the contemporary world." (Dr Herwitz, p. 17)

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