.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The horse and the nude have fascinated Husain since his formative years. He studied Sung horses during his visit to China in 1952 and Renaissance horses during his trip to Europe. The identity of his early nudes, however, tend to be inspired by classical Indian sculpture but have been compared to the figures of Matisse.
'The relationship of the body to the stallion is a paradox of frenzy and unhurried movement. An elegant dissection of space with line and angle. There is a measure of squared off posture and high leaping which suggests the free dance of Martha Graham or hints at the ecstasy that is enclosed by the flashing lines of Bernini sculptural composition...Husain's horses become a vehicle for multiple utterances - aggression, power and protection...the brute strength of horses born and released from fabulous regions mutate in to thunderbolt, energies, phallic and omnipotent.' (Roshan Shahani, Let History Cut Across Me Without Me, New Delhi, 1993, p. 8.)
'The relationship of the body to the stallion is a paradox of frenzy and unhurried movement. An elegant dissection of space with line and angle. There is a measure of squared off posture and high leaping which suggests the free dance of Martha Graham or hints at the ecstasy that is enclosed by the flashing lines of Bernini sculptural composition...Husain's horses become a vehicle for multiple utterances - aggression, power and protection...the brute strength of horses born and released from fabulous regions mutate in to thunderbolt, energies, phallic and omnipotent.' (Roshan Shahani, Let History Cut Across Me Without Me, New Delhi, 1993, p. 8.)