Important Notice

“Human beings, that’s all that’s really interesting. You paint and you draw in order to learn how to look at human beings, how to look at yourself.”? M F HUSAIN

Woman is one of M F Husain’s most important subjects. Starting from the 1960s, as the society he kept became more prosperous, musicians and dancers joined the rural woman in his oeuvre. The woman as musician, often playing traditional Indian instruments like the... “Human beings, that’s all that’s really interesting. You paint and you draw in order to learn how to look at human beings, how to look at yourself.”? M F HUSAIN

Woman is one of M F Husain’s most important subjects. Starting from the 1960s, as the society he kept became more prosperous, musicians and dancers joined the rural woman in his oeuvre. The woman as musician, often playing traditional Indian instruments like the veena, became a recurring subject for the artist. The present lot is one such work which exemplifies Husain’s sustained interest in these twin themes. Working quickly in acrylic, he rendered a faceless woman as the focal point of the painting. Bearing no discernible facial features but all the marks of gentility, she is lost to the melodies produced by her own hands. Husain underscores her profound connection to music by placing a second instrument, a pair of tablas, by her.

The influence of Indian miniatures is evident in the fiery reds, yellows and oranges of the present lot. Husain was particularly taken by the Malwa school of miniatures which put these intense shades in relief against blues and greys. This fascination can be credited for the background wash of blue here, as well as the brown?grey of the tabla. Adopting the language and techniques of Indian miniature painting was pivotal to Husain’s stylistic trajectory. He was profoundly moved by the tradition on encountering it at a 1948 exhibition of classical and traditional Indian art with F N Souza in New Delhi in 1948. Husain said of the formative experience, “It was humbling. I came back to Bombay and in 1948 I came out with five paintings, which was the turning point of my life. I deliberately picked up two or three periods of Indian history. One was the classical period of the Guptas. The very sensuous form of the female body. Next, was the Basholi period. The strong colours of the Basholi miniatures. The last was the folk element.” (The artist quoted in Dr. Daniel Herwitz, Husain, Mumbai: Tata Press, 1988, p. 18)

His oeuvre since has been defined by a novel expression of the proud lineage of traditional Indian art forms. The critic Ranjit Hoskote summed up the essence of Husain’s art, which wears its origins on its sleeve while innovating it, with, “Behind every stroke of the artist’s brush is a vast hinterland of traditional concepts, forms, meanings… 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.” (Ebrahim Alkazi, “M F Husain: The Modern Artist & Tradition”, M.F. Husain, New Delhi: Art Heritage, 1978, p. 3)

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