Important Notice

"Husain is the harbinger of a new mood in Indian art." (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1971, pg.28)

A self-taught art maestro, Maqbool Fida Husain constantly straddled the divide between high and popular art. In the former, he redefined Modern art, along with his Bombay Progressive confreres, and started a new chapter in Indian art. His expressive, active manner of... "Husain is the harbinger of a new mood in Indian art." (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1971, pg.28)

A self-taught art maestro, Maqbool Fida Husain constantly straddled the divide between high and popular art. In the former, he redefined Modern art, along with his Bombay Progressive confreres, and started a new chapter in Indian art. His expressive, active manner of painting evoked a sense of immediacy. At the same time, he embraced certain artistic forms not many would: serigraphy, films, photography, toy-making, and painting Bollywood posters and murals as well.

Around the 1950s, Husain created a series of works that were expansive in their bold colours and strong lines, and replete with mysterious signs, symbols and calligraphy. This style was inspired by his study of the poetic imagery in Basohli miniatures, sans its delicacy; the expressive motion and energy of Jain miniatures, and his admiration of the vivid calligraphic lines in Chinese paintings. Around the same time, Husain had become a practiced wooden toy maker, and it showed in his paintings as well. Flat colours, sharp, angularly contoured figures and a plasticity of form can be seen in his works, not just of that particular phase, but throughout his oeuvre.

This was also the decade during which Husain churned out a steady slew of emotive paintings on rural life. One of his famous paintings, Zameen, winner of the 1955 Lalit Kala Akademi award, is made up of several panels, each portraying, through symbolic motifs, daily scenes from a village. The black sun-a recurring Husain image, tree with fruit, oxen, the wheel, and his peculiar, sculpturesque style of women, are symbols that stand out in washes of light and dark colours.

Here, we perceive a similar atmosphere: the solid, block-like palette of brown, red, white, blue and green, and the juxtaposition of the colours render the figures in the painting-the village woman, the ox and the sparse tree-in sharp contrast to each other. The ox, usually featuring in dark shades, is inverted into a wash of white here, with an enigmatic symbol resembling a wheel on it. The woman, on the other hand, is true to the Husain female form, invoking his fondness for the "typical high-breasted and taut female figure Mathura sculpture." (Ibid, pg. 36)

"Husain sees his work also as a bridge to modernity, reflecting a state of transition in art and society, a refashioning of the broken links in India's artistic tradition." (Ibid, pg. 25)

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