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Lot Essay
Most artists have been attracted at one time or other to the charm and colour of the Indian countryside and drawn inspiration from it. Few have brought to it the poetic lyricism which Husain has. Here the sight of a simple country cart sets him off on a journey, a pilgrimage ('yatra') into the time and world of ancient myth
- Ebrahim Alkazi, 1978
Maqbool Fida Husain is widely regarded as the most renowned figure in the story of modern Indian art. The high-profile, charismatic artist pioneered an energetic and innovative style uniquely his own, in his quest to establish what it meant to be a modern artist in India. Drawing inspiration from Indian classical art, both miniature painting and sculpture, and combining that with the expressionist dynamism of Western modernism, Husain created an aesthetic that remains instantly recognizable. In the decade following India’s independence in 1947, Husain presented a new modern art for a new modern India.
As the collector, gallerist and historian Ebrahim Alkazi elegantly encapsulated in his monograph on the artist, “behind every stroke of the artist's brush is a vast hinterland of traditional concepts, forms, meanings. [Husain’s] vision is never uniquely his own; it is a new perspective given to collective experience of his race [...] Husain’s concept is intensely poetic: with a stroke of genius, the entire mythic world which has enriched the minds of the common people is brought vividly alive. Past and present, myth and reality are shown to exist simultaneously in the Indian imagination. The yatra into past time and racial memory is not that of the characters alone; it is the yatra of the artist, and provoked by him, of the viewer” (E. Alkazi, M. F. Husain: The Modern Artist & Tradition, New Delhi, 1978, p. 17).
In the present lot, a 1959 painting titled The Journey or Yatra, Husain’s subjects and focus combine rural life with mythology and symbolism, drawing from India’s vast and varied historical visual cultures. Inspired by a watershed trip he made to Delhi with Souza to visit an exhibition of classical Indian art at the Viceregal Lodge in 1948, Husain recalls, “We went to Delhi together to see that big exhibition of Indian sculptures and miniatures which was shown in 1948 [...] It was humbling. I came back to Bombay in 1948 with five paintings, which was the turning point in my life. I deliberately picked up two or three periods of Indian history. One was the classical period of the Guptas. The very sensuous form of the female body. Next, was the Basholi period. The strong colours of the Basholi miniatures. The last was the folk element. With these three combined, and using colours – very boldly as I did with cinema hoardings [...] I went to town [...] That was the breaking point” (Artist statement, P. Nandy, The Illustrated Weekly of India, December 4-10, 1983).
Here, Husain portrays a rural Indian family setting out on a journey with their mule, which will likely prove arduous, both physically and spiritually. The standing woman, kneeling man and their child are starkly depicted against the earthy backdrop using orange, blue and white tones respectively. In the background, a group of villagers and horses bear witness to their departure, perhaps in search of a brighter future in the teeming cities of a newly independent India.
Writing about the artist's early works, like the present lot, the critic Richard Bartholomew noted, “There is a tender feeling of compassion, of trust, of an obsession with private and individual lives, of investigation into, and exploration of the provinces of passionate memory, hope, desire, and submissive doubt. This opens up for the spectator a silent world in which the dramatis personae think, and where the stances, and the coupling and grouping, suggest autonomous sensibility [...] Husain is in his most dynamic phase and his discoveries, I dare predict, will condition the shape of much of the contemporary Indian painting to come” (R. Bartholomew, ‘Forty Works by M.F. Husain’, Thought, 14 December 1957).
- Ebrahim Alkazi, 1978
Maqbool Fida Husain is widely regarded as the most renowned figure in the story of modern Indian art. The high-profile, charismatic artist pioneered an energetic and innovative style uniquely his own, in his quest to establish what it meant to be a modern artist in India. Drawing inspiration from Indian classical art, both miniature painting and sculpture, and combining that with the expressionist dynamism of Western modernism, Husain created an aesthetic that remains instantly recognizable. In the decade following India’s independence in 1947, Husain presented a new modern art for a new modern India.
As the collector, gallerist and historian Ebrahim Alkazi elegantly encapsulated in his monograph on the artist, “behind every stroke of the artist's brush is a vast hinterland of traditional concepts, forms, meanings. [Husain’s] vision is never uniquely his own; it is a new perspective given to collective experience of his race [...] Husain’s concept is intensely poetic: with a stroke of genius, the entire mythic world which has enriched the minds of the common people is brought vividly alive. Past and present, myth and reality are shown to exist simultaneously in the Indian imagination. The yatra into past time and racial memory is not that of the characters alone; it is the yatra of the artist, and provoked by him, of the viewer” (E. Alkazi, M. F. Husain: The Modern Artist & Tradition, New Delhi, 1978, p. 17).
In the present lot, a 1959 painting titled The Journey or Yatra, Husain’s subjects and focus combine rural life with mythology and symbolism, drawing from India’s vast and varied historical visual cultures. Inspired by a watershed trip he made to Delhi with Souza to visit an exhibition of classical Indian art at the Viceregal Lodge in 1948, Husain recalls, “We went to Delhi together to see that big exhibition of Indian sculptures and miniatures which was shown in 1948 [...] It was humbling. I came back to Bombay in 1948 with five paintings, which was the turning point in my life. I deliberately picked up two or three periods of Indian history. One was the classical period of the Guptas. The very sensuous form of the female body. Next, was the Basholi period. The strong colours of the Basholi miniatures. The last was the folk element. With these three combined, and using colours – very boldly as I did with cinema hoardings [...] I went to town [...] That was the breaking point” (Artist statement, P. Nandy, The Illustrated Weekly of India, December 4-10, 1983).
Here, Husain portrays a rural Indian family setting out on a journey with their mule, which will likely prove arduous, both physically and spiritually. The standing woman, kneeling man and their child are starkly depicted against the earthy backdrop using orange, blue and white tones respectively. In the background, a group of villagers and horses bear witness to their departure, perhaps in search of a brighter future in the teeming cities of a newly independent India.
Writing about the artist's early works, like the present lot, the critic Richard Bartholomew noted, “There is a tender feeling of compassion, of trust, of an obsession with private and individual lives, of investigation into, and exploration of the provinces of passionate memory, hope, desire, and submissive doubt. This opens up for the spectator a silent world in which the dramatis personae think, and where the stances, and the coupling and grouping, suggest autonomous sensibility [...] Husain is in his most dynamic phase and his discoveries, I dare predict, will condition the shape of much of the contemporary Indian painting to come” (R. Bartholomew, ‘Forty Works by M.F. Husain’, Thought, 14 December 1957).