Important Notice

"Space, time, memory, light and colour, love and its pathos, are compressed and compounded into a unit that engages us like a flash of intuition...this is what he [Husain] sets out to do-to make visual poetry with its own rhythm and resonance, its own symbolism, its own sensuous and abstract connotations." (Richard Bartholomew, The Art of Maqbool Fida Husain, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, p20)

Maqbool Fida Husain's... "Space, time, memory, light and colour, love and its pathos, are compressed and compounded into a unit that engages us like a flash of intuition...this is what he [Husain] sets out to do-to make visual poetry with its own rhythm and resonance, its own symbolism, its own sensuous and abstract connotations." (Richard Bartholomew, The Art of Maqbool Fida Husain, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, p20)

Maqbool Fida Husain's works are predominantly figurative. They are recognised by their energetic strokes, solid colours and bold lines. He felt the urge to challenge accepted norms of art and from this urge he began reimagining form, colour and structure. His foray into this world of energetic figures came through a need for balancing artistic needs and the appeal of traditional Indian art forms.

Speaking of the importance of animal motifs in his works, "Animal symbolism and masks are inextricably tied up with the religious tradition of every race. They represent an ancient community of basic identity between man and beast, a recognition by man of his own bestial urges. In Indian mythology, gods are inseparable from the animal 'vehicles' that express some of their attributes on a more basic plane. In certain cases gods are actually realised in animal form, or are viewed as capable of change...of transformation according to the character of the myth." (Ibid, p48) One of Husain's works titled "Laxmi and Airavat", 1968, aptly reflects this. The elephant, along with the horse, has made re-appearances in many of his works. Here there is a role reversal:, the woman carries the elephant with an almost casual indifference and ease on her palm and he is performing for her. It is also reflective of the analogy of "gaja gamini': the woman whose gait is graceful as that of an elephant;, this also forms the theme of his movie by the same name. Women become "The central concern of Husain's art, and its dominant motif...Man...is diminished by confusion and broken by belief...Spiritually, woman is more enduring. Pain comes naturally to her, as do compassion and a sense of the birth and death of things...Husain is aware of a sense of drama in a woman's passage, in sexual terms, from innocence to knowledge." (Ibid, p46)

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