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FORMERLY PART OF THE CHESTER AND DAVIDA HERWITZ COLLECTION

Chester and Davida Herwitz were immensely devoted to 20th century Indian art, setting aside six weeks of each year to travel to India from Worcester, Massachusetts in pursuit of the best its contemporary artists had to offer. The resulting collection, amounting to over 4000 paintings, works on paper and sculpture, is universally celebrated as one of the most significant... FORMERLY PART OF THE CHESTER AND DAVIDA HERWITZ COLLECTION

Chester and Davida Herwitz were immensely devoted to 20th century Indian art, setting aside six weeks of each year to travel to India from Worcester, Massachusetts in pursuit of the best its contemporary artists had to offer. The resulting collection, amounting to over 4000 paintings, works on paper and sculpture, is universally celebrated as one of the most significant collections of modern and contemporary Indian art. Art historian Partha Mitter has noted that the extensive nature of the Herwitz collection allowed intimate insight into the oeuvre of an individual artist. This rings incredibly true in the case of M F Husain with whom the Herwitzes struck up a friendship on their many trips to the country. The collection is an archive of a moment in Indian art history when Indian artists shed the baggage of colonial education to litigate a new Indianness through their experimentation. Works from the collection have been loaned to Tate Britain and the San Francisco Art Museum. Chester and Davida Herwitz donated part of the collection to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, thus creating the first major collection of 20th century Indian art in a museum outside India. The Herwitz Gallery at the museum is the first gallery dedicated to modern and contemporary Indian art in an American museum.

Line is one of the most important elements in M F Husain’s works. Raised on kufic khat calligraphy, the importance of the line was instinctive to him. Husain’s affinity to it only grew on seeing the elegant rhythmic lines of Chola bronzes on a visit to Madras in 1954. His mastery over this element is evident in the present lot, an early work where thick black lines confidently delineate his forms and charge the pictorial space with a dynamic energy. Art historian Yashodhara Dalmia notes the importance of the line in Husain’s oeuvre, “Above all else, it was the line that was Husain’s strongest element and he used it with a bounding energy in his work. The deft strokes that came from an early acquaintance with calligraphy now encased the figure in simple, economic points of intersection. He stated that ‘Line is a virile force with keen latent mobility, which in spite of being imperceptible in nature, is constantly striving to assert itself.” (“A Metaphor for Modernity: Maqbool Fida Husain”, Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 109)

The right half of the canvas is dominated by the elephant, a favourite recurring motif for Husain. Here the artist renders it in stark yellow and white with two trunks, alluding to Airavat, the divine white elephant mount of the Hindu rain god Indra. He imbues the form with a gentle grace in contrast to its considerable size. In doing so, Husain draws deeply from classical Indian literature where the elephant represents elegance and lends its imagery to the Sanskrit term gaja gamini, one possessing the graceful gait of an elephant.

Spontaneity is a cornerstone of Husain’s practice. The artist prefers spontaneous creation over long deliberation in order to retain vigour. In explaining his process he said, “Like it didn’t take half a century to write Wasteland, it doesn’t take an entire lifetime to create a body of paintings... If you become overly conscious about what you are doing, then artificiality, a fake-ness creeps in… I have no qualms about saying that painting is not an intellectual activity... For me, painting is the sheer joy of colour and lines. That’s why our tribal and folk art has survived centuries, since these arts have been as natural as breathing. They aren’t encumbered by theories and are certainly superior to conceptual art... The moment you procrastinate or try to add something extraneous then you’re overburdened.” (Artist quoted in 88 Husains in Oils 003, Kolkata: Galerie 88, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery and Mumbai: Pundole Art Gallery, 2003)

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