Important Notice

Lot 16

 

Quick Zoom

“Art has to evolve from your very being, like my horses are classical, because I see them as ageless and immortal. They draw chariots in the great epics, they stand proudly in the poorest stables, they are embodiments of strength like the dragons of China.”
- M F HUSAIN

M F Husain’s fascination with horses can be traced back to a childhood where they represented dignity, power and grace to him. As a child he would accompany his... “Art has to evolve from your very being, like my horses are classical, because I see them as ageless and immortal. They draw chariots in the great epics, they stand proudly in the poorest stables, they are embodiments of strength like the dragons of China.”
- M F HUSAIN

M F Husain’s fascination with horses can be traced back to a childhood where they represented dignity, power and grace to him. As a child he would accompany his grandfather on long visits to his friend Acchan Mian. As the local farrier, his workshop would receive horses owned by the Holkar king, impressing upon young Husain the stateliness of the equine form. Horses also abounded in mythology. A deciding formative influence on the artist was the larger-than-life effigies of Duldul, the legendary horse of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, which were paraded in the streets of his town every Muharram. Along with epic stories of valour from the Battle of Karbala, the majesty of the horse was also reinforced through the Hindu legend of Ashwamedha.

Two years after the horse first showed up in his oeuvre in the form of Duldul, Husain undertook a visit to China as a delegate to the 1952 World Peace Conference. This visit introduced him to the horses of the Sung dynasty and, importantly, the artist Xu Beihong. Coming face-to-face with Beihong’s painting of a thousand horses in his studio had a dramatic effect on Husain, who said that the work “haunted me day and night”. (The artist quoted in Ila Pal, Beyond the Canvas: An unfinished portrait of M.F. Husain, New Delhi: Indus, 1994, p. 79) He was taken by the dynamism of Beihong’s equestrian subjects; his galvanising figuration was to have a deep impact on Husain’s own rendering of the horse. Curator and art critic Susan S Bean notes how Husain incorporated the masculine verve of Xu Beihong’s horses into his own artistic interpretation. “Inspired by Xu Beihong, Husain infused his horses with a renewed vigor, an enlivened energy of movement combining dragon-like elements of masculinity with feminine grace.” (Susan S Bean, “East Meets East in Husain’s Horses,” Lightning by M.F. Husain, New York: TamarindArt in association with Asia Society Museum New York and Mapin Publishing, 2019, p. 43)

The present lot, painted in 1968, foregrounds a horse caught mid- motion. Two heads are drawn at an angle to suggest a spirited rearing of its head while the energetic linework articulates its frenetic energy. Though the sharp, angular lines of the head, thrown back with gusto, and the strong long neck imply power, the gently curving back and tail of the horse bring softness to the figure. For Husain, equestrian splendour was best expressed in the conscious androgyny of his figures. “Horses are beautiful animals-I see them in two parts-the front, which is forceful and triumphant, and the back graceful like a woman. It could be regarded as a mix of power and grace; that is how I depict my horses-charging like a dragon in the front and graceful and elegant from the back.” (The artist quoted in an interview by Marguerite Charugundla, Lightning by M.F. Husain, p. 107-108)

Being a member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Husain was influenced by Expressionism as can be seen in his preference for flattened two-dimensional representations of his subjective perception, evident in the present lot. Art critic Shiv Kapur contends that Husain also draws from older local traditions of representation which he can lay claim to as an Indian. “In the classical sculpture and later in the miniature painting, form was perceived as an ideogram, the bearer of a familiar idea or emotion renewed and recharged with meaning in the process of re-creation. Actuality was viewed as no more than the manifest dimension of reality: other dimensions lay hidden behind it, and the natural form in art only hinted at their presence.” (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S Kapur, Husain, New York: Harry N Abrams, Inc., 1972, p. 36). In fact, despite being likened to Picasso, Husain did not draw from a single, or only Western source, but amalgamated many diverse influences into his own style. For art historian Yashodhara Dalmia, “If comparisons have to be drawn with Picasso at all it is in archiving several cultures and time spans and in that sense he allied with a fluid reality forever in the process of becoming.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “M.F. Husain: Re-inventing India”, M.F. Husain: Early Masterpieces 1950s-70s, London: Asia House Gallery, 2006)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site