Important Notice

Lot 77

"The six years from 1956 to 1961 were a period of fulfilment for Husain…His paintings had already won international recognition at the Venice Biennale in 1954; now he exhibited them in succession… in Zurich, Prague, Frankfurt, and Rome and in 1959, received the International Biennale award in Tokyo…His own work of that time celebrates the experience and the sensation of love…From this and other profound personal experiences flowed paintings on a... "The six years from 1956 to 1961 were a period of fulfilment for Husain…His paintings had already won international recognition at the Venice Biennale in 1954; now he exhibited them in succession… in Zurich, Prague, Frankfurt, and Rome and in 1959, received the International Biennale award in Tokyo…His own work of that time celebrates the experience and the sensation of love…From this and other profound personal experiences flowed paintings on a wide variety of subjects. Husain painted musicians and dancers, horses and bathers, nudes and lovers. He explored the individual human form, cloaked in solitude, and then placed it in a group as if within a community of loneliness.” (Richard Bartholomew & Shiv Kapur, Husain, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1969, p.41)

Although during this period, Husain begins moving away from the centrality of folk art in his paintings, this work still retains the essential forms of folk art, as the work depicts the festival of Holi, which is a celebration that takes place in March and was originally aimed at giving thanks for a good harvest. It has now, come to be linked with Hindu Mythology. This painting, seems to nationalise the festival with the colors of the Indian flag, orange, white and green taking predominance, while the overall mood seems to reflect the exuberance and abandon with which colours, music and dance seem to dominate participation in the festivities. This interest in a convergence of art forms, such as literature, music and the visual arts, was pivotal to Husain’s work during the late 50’s and early 60’s: “Husain’s interest lay in rendering sculptural figures in flat surfaces of paint. In their intertwined and dissolving lines, he also sought the expressive grace of musical notes…Husain’s purpose in painting them was to clearly render the spirit of those arts in visual images. This approach accords with the Indian belief in the interdependence of art forms.” (Ibid, p. 42)

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