Important Notice

"Suddenly, a black horse noticed me.
He paused, turned back and said to me,
Go forth and see the world".
Indeed it is true.
Seeing the world is to understand one's own existence.
Husain knows this well.
Hence he never stays at one place for long."
- M F HUSAIN

M F Husain's horses encapsulate a complex and diverse plethora of cultural and artistic references. He painted them with the same... "Suddenly, a black horse noticed me.
He paused, turned back and said to me,
Go forth and see the world".
Indeed it is true.
Seeing the world is to understand one's own existence.
Husain knows this well.
Hence he never stays at one place for long."
- M F HUSAIN

M F Husain's horses encapsulate a complex and diverse plethora of cultural and artistic references. He painted them with the same frenetic energy that they represent through their bucking and rearing postures. In Husain's oeuvre, they are an amalgamation of both Indian and Western influences. "I have not seen these wild animals in the jungle. I have seen them imprisoned in stone on the walls of Khajuraho, Konark, Mahabalipuram - the temples of medieval India." (K Bikram Singh, Maqbool Fida Husain, New Delhi: Rahul & Art, 2008, p. 169)

Husain's horses are drawn from a wide range of encounters with the animal since his early childhood experiences in Indore, where he saw horses drawing tongas or in Muharram processions, and later on his travels to China in 1952. He was also aware of the horse themed works of German Expressionist Franz Marc and Italian sculptor Marino Marini. But Husain incorporated these influences seamlessly to create paintings in his own inimitable style. So enthralled was the artist by the power of the horse that he even referenced it in his own poetry.

Husain explored the many moods and nuances of these majestic animals throughout his career. "The horses are rampant or galloping; the manes, the fury, the working buttocks, the prancing legs, and the strong neighing heads with dilated nostrils are blocks of colour which are vivid or tactile or are propelled in their significant progression by strokes of the brush or sweeps of the palette knife. The activity depicted is transformed in the activity of paint." (Ebrahim Alkazi, M F Husain: The Modern Artist and Tradition, New Delhi: Art Heritage, 1978, p. 3) The present lot depicts four horses in distinct colours - white, black and yellow - charging onward in agitation, set against a background of deep maroon. This scene is juxtaposed with the figure of a meditating man at the edge of the frame, whose form and mudra stand out against black.

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