Maqbul Fida Husain

Acquired directly from the artist in Ottawa in 1965 by a Canadian Diplomat and thence by descent

India House, New York, February 1964

 

in good overall condition, small tear in area of white on chest recently restored, not visible from the front of the painting, minor areas of paint shrinkage in blue, very minor hairline cracquelure to areas of thick red impasto, red deeper and more magenta in reality
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This work was painted during 1964 whilst Husain was visiting New York for his first US solo show at India House. Stylistically the angular elongated form of the face and the flat plains of colour dissected by strong black linear contours relate closely to Rajasthani Woman from 1963 and Hajera from 1964 (illustrated in Bartholomew and Kapur 1971, nos.118 &126). To Bartholomew and Kapur these 'strong, angular lines and flatly applied patches of color are the instrumentation of the female form' (ibid, 1971, p.46). Bartholomew and Kapur identify the woman as a central concern in Husain's art, a motif that embodies the inner quest and spiritual anguish characteristic of a number of Husain's works from this period.

'Husain's women are always enshrouded in an invisible veil, the simplicity of their form countered by their inaccessibility. They could well be women from his own childhood in a Muslim household, where the feminine presence alternates between the secretive and the visible. The suppressed yearning could be for his mother, who died when he was only two years old, leaving him feeling permanently bereft... The ascetic purity of the woman is countered by the gas lamp that stands sentinel to her thoughts. The phallus-shaped lamp has a special significance for Husain as he was brought up by his grandfather Abdul, a lamp-repairer and a tinsmith and his emotional mainstay till his death when Husain was six years old' (Dalmia, 2001, p.111).

In many of his works Husain draws postures and hand gestures from classical Indian sculpture and dance, as in the current lot these mudras are reworked to become personal symbols for the artist.