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Lot 42

 

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“Behind every stroke of the artist’s brush is a vast hinterland of traditional concepts, forms and meanings. His vision is never uniquely his own; it is a new perspective given to the collective experience of his race. It is in this fundamental sense that we speak of Husain being in the authentic tradition of Indian art. He has been unique in his ability to forge a pictorial language which is indisputably of the contemporary Indian situation but... “Behind every stroke of the artist’s brush is a vast hinterland of traditional concepts, forms and meanings. His vision is never uniquely his own; it is a new perspective given to the collective experience of his race. It is in this fundamental sense that we speak of Husain being in the authentic tradition of Indian art. He has been unique in his ability to forge a pictorial language which is indisputably of the contemporary Indian situation but surcharged with all the energies, the rhythms of his art heritage” (E. Alkazi, M.F. Husain: The Modern Artist and Tradition, Art Heritage exhibition catalogue, p. 3).

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, M.F. Husain travelled widely across India and made several journeys to other countries as well, visiting cities like Delhi, Bern and Beijing in quick succession. As a result, the artist’s paintings from the 1950s reflect an amalgam of the various experiences he had during these travels, drawing heavily from the variety of traditional and modern art forms he came across.

In the present lot, portraying a vividly coloured couple in the foreground with a row of red dancers behind them, Husain combines the exuberant palette and subjects of Basholi paintings, his knowledge of Matisse’s palette, the strong lines of Jain miniatures and various calligraphic traditions, and the sculpted forms of the Gupta and Mathura schools.

In particular, “The nayaka-nayika¬ (hero and heroine) theme – often portrayed in the guise of Radha and her divine lover Krishna – was the Basholi painter’s favorite subject; in pictorial compositions of eloquent lyricism, he made his theme quick with emotion, conveyed by a swinging line and clear patches of hot orange, yellow and brown that called to Husain as snatches of a pure song. The Basholi style contributed to the release of lucid colors in his own work” (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, Harry N. Abrams Inc., New York, 1972, p. 38).

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