Maqbool Fida Husain (b. 1915)

Minor abrasions and hairline craquelure along lower edge of painting and along left edge. Otherwise canvas appears to be in good overall condition. Colors of original richer with greater contrasts in blues and mauves than catalouge illustration.
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From the end of the 1950's to the late 1960's Husain painted a series of works related to classical Indian music and dance. The series is recognized as one of his most iconic statements, as it incorporates so many of the artist's most recognizable themes and symbols. Ragamala paintings in the classical tradition are visual interpretations of Indian musical modes, each Raga relating to a specific emotion. The moods of lovers and the precise erotic flavors of each meeting are expressed through color, form and symbols that themselves relate to classical Indian music and poetry. 'This approach accords with the Indian belief in the interdependence of art forms. Ancient treatises enjoin the dancer to dance with the song in her throat and the dancing figure is a prime motif in traditional Indian sculpture...in their intertwined and dissolving lines he [Husain] sought the expressive grace of musical notes.' (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, New York, 1971, p. 42).

Husain's paintings from this period are not formalistic. The figures, postures and symbols are drawn from the artist's own visual library and then reworked and re-animated in new ways, twisting old meanings or reinventing meanings for a contemporary audience. This process is not merely derivative, traditional forms from classical Indian sculpture, miniature painting or tribal and folk art are absorbed into the artist's consciousness and then adapted before manifesting themselves in his own paintings. 'Veena Player has a crescendo of passionate red leading off into a diminuendo of yellows browns, and the blue of the veena itself thrusting diagonally across the composition. The vigorous figure of the Veena player is outlined with an economy of line, the whole painting a dynamic and harmonious fusion of theme, form and color. In comparison Sitar Player  with its female figure and dominant blues comes as a cool counterpoint.' (Richard Bartholemew and Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, New York, 1971, p. 52).  Individually these new paintings are not intended to represent a concluding statement on traditional forms but are part of an ongoing process that fulfils his own need to articulate what he has experienced. Even within the broad spectrum of Husain's work, his visual and metaphorical associations evolve naturally over time so that his own iconic symbols are constantly evolving and reinvented to suit new moods and artistic modes of expression.

'Husain views each painting as a fragment of music whose counterpoint exists elsewhere, and his entire painterly activity as one immense effort at orchestration of all the notes that he hears struck upon his personality. No painting is intended as a complete statement. In a continuing inquiry into the nature of being, every one of his wide array of works, joyous or grave, leaves the viewer with an intimation of other possibilities.' (Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, New York, 1971, p. 60).

Like classical Indian miniature paintings the symbols and colors in Husains paintings provide an unwritten code that offer glimpses to their meaning. The current lot is stylistically more fluid and gestural than the works from the 50's and 60's and appears to relate to works from the late 1970's to mid 1980's where a long haired figure of a female becomes his central muse.  As with the earlier painting titled Sitar Player, blues remain the dominant color giving the work a mood of quiet melancholy perhaps reflecting the mood of longing for an absent lover, the theme of numerous ancient ragamala paintings.