Untitled (Bulls)

Maqbool Fida Husain, one of India's most venerated modern painters, frequently incorporates strong and powerful animals into his works, which often symbolises aspects of South Asian culture and his own autobiography. In this early painting, Husain depicts the bull, an image which has a longstanding significance in Indian art history, most notably in portrayals of the venerated Nandi. Here the bull plays a dual role, both as a vahana - the animal vehicle associated with Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati - and in this village scene, as a symbol closely tied to farming and the land. Using the rich yellows, reds and blues typical of an Indian color palette, Husain places an open palm on the bull's hide in abhaya mudra, or the 'fear-removing' gesture, indelibly linking the well-being of the village in the back with the presence of the animals in the foreground.

Husain has always been drawn to images that capture the essence of Indian life, be it in urban or rural settings. He "has been unique in his ability to forge a pictorial language which is indisputably of the contemporary Indian situation, but surcharged with all the energies, the rhythms of his art heritage." (E. Alkazi, M. F. Husain, New Delhi, Art Heritage, p. 3.)

For a similar work see R. Bartholemew and S. Kapur, Husain, New York, 1986, pl. 95.