Maqbool Fida Husain (b. 1915)

‘Husain’s men and women, outwardly simple and unsophisticated are highly conscious beings.  They are conscious of being channels through which life runs its course.  Very often they are caught listening and intent upon that flood within them, tense because of what they hear, with eyes of solemn curiosity and a mantle of silence around them.  Even in groups sitting or standing together these men and women are supremely solitary.  They do not communicate with each other.  They remain locked in a binding compassion, in a unity of colour and composition divided by wondrously understanding line.  Husain does not only represent life, he annotates it, and the postulate of that annotation is the utter marvel of it all.’ (Shiv S. Kapur, Husain, Lalit Kala Akademi, 1961, p. v).