Important Notice

“I’m merely trying to collate my experience of 60 years through the paintings. Through men, women, plants and birds...I’m not narrating any story...I’m not concerned with certain types here; instead I’m aspiring to convey my vision to speak...I didn’t sit down, brood that I have to do this theme or that. If you become overly conscious about what you’re doing, then artificiality, a fake-ness creeps in.” - M F HUSAIN

The human figure... “I’m merely trying to collate my experience of 60 years through the paintings. Through men, women, plants and birds...I’m not narrating any story...I’m not concerned with certain types here; instead I’m aspiring to convey my vision to speak...I didn’t sit down, brood that I have to do this theme or that. If you become overly conscious about what you’re doing, then artificiality, a fake-ness creeps in.” - M F HUSAIN

The human figure remained an essential part of M F Husain’s depictions of the varied realities of India. “How can I go abstract when there are 600 million people around me in India? It is impossible for me to ignore the multitudes around me. How can I do that as an artist?” (Artist quoted in Yashodhara Dalmia, “The Rise of Modern Art and the Progressives,” The Progressive Revolution: Modern Art for A New India, New York: Asia Society, 2019) As a result, the human figure became “the vehicle for his exploration of the nature and drama of reality.” (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S Kapur, Husain, New York: Harry N Abrams Inc., 1972, p. 36)

However, it was the female figure that would go on to become a particularly central and recurrent motif in Husain’s art over the years. “The central concern of Husain’s art, and its dominant motif, is woman... In Husain’s work, woman has the gift of eagerness... like those in ancient Jain miniature paintings, and an inward attentiveness, as if she were listening to the life coursing within her.” (Bartholomew and Kapur, p. 46) Husain could draw a village woman with as much dexterity and compassion as he could a portrait of Mother Teresa or Indira Gandhi. He was as interested in rural India, with women and their water pots or animals, as he was in pop culture, where he portrayed movie stars from Bollywood.

He would often portray women steadily engaged in daily activities, as is the case with the two female figures seen in the present lot. “It is a point worth noting that Husain’s women, far from arousing passion, are ascetic... It is almost as if he strips the sculptures of all exterior embellishments to arrive at their basic sense of movement. Husain’s women are always enshrouded in an invisible veil, the simplicity of their form countered by their inaccessibility.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Metaphor for Modernity,” The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 110-111)

Husain’s masterful handling of composition and colour as well as his depictions of women were informed by his studies of miniature painting, classical sculpture, and his own travels and observations of rural and urban life. “The deft strokes that came from an early acquaintance with calligraphy now encased the figure in simple, economic points of intersection.” (Dalmia, p. 109)

In the present lot, Husain uses an earthier muted palette with thick and thin intersecting layers of paint with deliberate and textured lines. This is a style that is most commonly noted in his early and mid-career paintings where “...the colour patches give birth to form and cover the canvas, balanced by their intensity. The early palette places darker colours in areas of shadows, giving to them a feeling of sombreness and sorrow.” (Ayaz S Peerbhoy, Paintings of Husain, Hyderabad: Cinema Ghar Museum of Art and Cinema, 2005)

Untitled (Mehndi) features two female figures sitting in a courtyard with trees in the background. The present lot gains its title from the central feature of the painting - the decorated hands of the figures - and is a reference to the tradition of applying henna to one’s hands and feet as a form of adornment. As is characteristic of Husain’s work from this period, there is a slight dissolution of figure into the ground and is especially noted above the left figure.

Through masterful strokes, the present lot conveys an array of emotions and forms and is a fine example of Husain’s ability to create art that was uniquely expressive of his own vision.

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