Lot 54
  • 54

Maqbool Fida Husain

Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Maqbool Fida Husain
  • Untitled (Heads) 
  • Signed and dated in Devanagari upper right 
  • Oil on canvas 
  • 48.4 x 86.5 cm. (19 x 34 in.)
  • Painted in 1970

Provenance

Saffronart, 6 December 2006, lot 3
Sotheby's New York, 16 September 2010, lot 35 

Exhibited

New York, Aicon Gallery, Ram Kumar and the Bombay Progressives: The Form and the Figure Pt. II, September - October, 2013
New York, Aicon Gallery, Shifting the Paradigm: Masterworks of Indian Painting Before and After Independence, September - October 2014


Literature

D. Herwitz, Husain at Hundred, Aicon Gallery, New York, illustrated p. 25 

Condition

There is hairline craquelure present across the paint surface. UV light: A small tear has been repaired and touched upon on the chin of the male figure, also visible on the reverse of the work.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

These two works (lots 53 and 54) by Maqbool Fida Husain, painted over a span of fifteen years, depict tribal men and women from India, their faces enveloped by headpieces, bangles, heavy jewelry and textiles. Both works are composed with a similar palette of blue, green and brown, portraying figures rendered in a cubist style using geometric color planes. It has been postulated that the Untitled (Three Heads) work, lot 53, contains a self-portrait of the artist himself in the left-most figure.
Dr. Daniel Herwitz explains: “[t]he central concern of Husain’s art, and its dominant motif, is woman … Strong angular lines and flatly applied patches of color are the instrument of the female form. Woman is seen either as a creation of lyric poetry, a sculpturesque and rhythmic figure of dance, or as an agent of fecundity” (D. Herwitz, Husain, Tata Steel, Delhi, 1988, p. 46). The same can be said for the treatment of the men in these two paintings.
Husain's modernism contends with a deep understanding of Indian aesthetics at a fundamental level and his dynamic brushstrokes coupled with his innate mastery over space and form, are the reason he is considered to be one of India's best modern masters.