M F Husain
(1915 - 2011)
Lady with Blue Tiger
The pairing of human and animal figures, and their various interactions, is a subject that M.F. Husain has returned to several times during his extensive painterly career. Whether it is horse and rider, bull and peasant, elephant and dancer, or, in this case, tiger and lady, this coupling creates a palpable tension that animates the artist's painted surfaces. "Husain's metaphor is rich and of great expressiveness. It brings a wide...
The pairing of human and animal figures, and their various interactions, is a subject that M.F. Husain has returned to several times during his extensive painterly career. Whether it is horse and rider, bull and peasant, elephant and dancer, or, in this case, tiger and lady, this coupling creates a palpable tension that animates the artist's painted surfaces. "Husain's metaphor is rich and of great expressiveness. It brings a wide sweep to his way of looking at things, to his many approaches to reality. His symbols and represented objects are often startling in juxtaposition because they are drawn from such far reaches of artistic memory. Dark, intuitive, sometimes traditional symbols are cast within a contemporary design and given meanings that seem valid for this and every other time. And if the innocent in art is also the original, as indeed it is, then innocence is the other noteworthy feature of Husain's work" (Shiv Kapur, Husain, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1961, p. i). In the present lot, Husain pairs the stalking figure of a large blue tiger with that of a reclining lady holding a quill to a flat lily-pad. In this juxtaposition, the artist captures the nuanced relationship between strength and beauty, ferocity and delicate sensuality. Each form is bounded by the artist's quick and confident line, which speaks of "…great sensitiveness and energy. It is a versatile line, capable of both power and poetry. It divides his forms in firm definition, broods amongst his grouped figures…It lurks in women's faces in tender almost tentative hint, or threads sharply across his compositions like a scalpel, separating one figure, one face from the other in subtly differentiated tones of colour, as though he sculpted his figures from paint" (Ibid.).
Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in:
this auction
|
entire site
Lot
48
of
70
AUTUMN AUCTION 2011
21-22 SEPTEMBER 2011
Estimate
$90,000 - 110,000
Rs 41,40,000 - 50,60,000
USD payment only.
Why?
ARTWORK DETAILS
M F Husain
Lady with Blue Tiger
Signed in English (upper right) and signed and dated in English (verso)
2005
Oil on canvas
23 x 35.5 in (58.4 x 90.2 cm)
PROVENANCE: Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
Category: Painting
Style: Figurative
ARTWORK SIZE:
Height of Figure: 6'