M F Husain’s life was defined by a quest to honour the long rich tradition of Indian art that came before him while at the same time creating work that rang true to the spirit of his times. This was a passion he came to early as an artist and which he shared with fellow members of the Progressive Artists’ Group. Recalling the shared impulse of those days he explained, “In 1945, I was one of a group of painters who thought we must find our own... M F Husain’s life was defined by a quest to honour the long rich tradition of Indian art that came before him while at the same time creating work that rang true to the spirit of his times. This was a passion he came to early as an artist and which he shared with fellow members of the Progressive Artists’ Group. Recalling the shared impulse of those days he explained, “In 1945, I was one of a group of painters who thought we must find our own roots... In those days the dominant style was the academic school of Britain... Royal Academy and all that... we revolted against that school of painting... we just wanted to find the language... we adopted the Western technique... but not in concept... I have a very definite goal... I must find a bridge between the Western technique and the Eastern concept.” (The artist quoted in Dr. Daniel Herwitz, Husain, Mumbai: Tata Press, 1988)

In keeping with this verve to determine a new direction for Indian art, he and PAG member F N Souza travelled to New Delhi to visit a landmark exhibition of traditional Indian art and sculpture in 1948. Coming face-to-face with the enormity of his inheritance profoundly moved Husain, who then made a conscious decision to use certain Indian traditions and styles as his artistic north stars. Years later, he recalled the life-altering event, “It was humbling. I came back to Bombay and in 1948 I came out with five paintings, which was the turning point of my life. I deliberately picked up two or three periods of Indian history. One was the classical period of the Guptas. The very sensuous form of the female body. Next, was the Basholi period. The strong colours of the Basholi miniatures. The last was the folk element.” (The artist quoted in Herwitz)

This was also a period of his life marked by intense travel in search of inspiration for his own burgeoning pictorial language. He travelled across the country and also internationally, getting better acquainted with various schools of Indian miniatures, Chinese ink painting, Mathura sculptures, and recent Western greats like Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Amedeo Modigliani. Shiv S Kapur likens Husain’s drive for inspiration at this time to a search for “nuances in the raga of his life in art.” (Shiv S Kapur, Richard Bartholomew and Shiv S Kapur, Husain, New York: Harry N Abrams, 1972, p. 36) This metaphor is quite fitting since music proved to be an incredible muse for the artist who created several works, including the present lot, on the subject.

Music, particularly Indian music, was the organising principle of his Ragamala series, which was inspired by Ragamala painting. A school of Indian miniature that thrived in Rajasthan from the 16th to 18th centuries, Ragamala painting was a visual representation of standard modes of classical Indian music called ragas, raginis, and ragaputras. Initially in Indian thought, each raga or ragini was embodied by a specific god, goddess or sundri (beautiful woman). This practice stemmed from legends which personified raginis as nymphs. Eventually, a detailed system of representation developed through which imagery like nayak and nayika (lovers), gods and goddesses, natural phenomena like rain, and animals and birds like antelopes, quails, roosters, elephants and horses were associated with particular ragas. Husain was committed to the same act of representing aural pleasure experienced through the temporal progression of notes onto pictorial space. This work can be read as a soulful evocation of a nighttime raga. Husain was committed to the same act of representing aural pleasure experienced through the temporal progression of notes onto pictorial space. This work can be read as a soulful evocation of a nighttime raga. Husain creates a harmonious balance by dividing the canvas in panels like Indian miniatures. The flat blue rectangles are separated from each other and enclosed by a lighter blue, also flatly applied, creating a border similar to those found in Rajasthani and Pahari miniature paintings. Each panel encloses musicians, a man on the left in the foreground is immersed in the music while two women offer accompaniment with their own instruments in the background of the right panel. The tabla, a favourite motif of Husain’s, occupies the foreground of the panel on the right, along with the hands playing it. Windows offer a glimpse of the world right behind the musicians, with the window behind the man framing a delicate nighttime scene of the moon rising over purple foliage. The white of the moon and the male musician’s robe, the gentle blues of the background and purples of the instrument, foliage and the female musician’s saris create a soothing palette that speaks to a tender raga saved for the quiet hours of the night.

Drawing deeply from the well of Indian art and music, this work is exemplary of Husain identifying what animates any given school of traditional Indian art and celebrating it without falling into simple mimesis. Celebrated Indian gallerist Ebrahim Alkazi astutely identified the strength of Husain’s art as his ability to charge ideas that have been around for a long time with a new vitality. “Behind every stroke of the artist’s brush is a vast hinterland of traditional concepts, forms, meanings... It is in this fundamental sense that we speak of Husain being in the authentic tradition of Indian art. 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.” (Ebrahim Alkazi, “M F Husain: The Modern Artist & Tradition”, M.F. Husain, New Delhi: Art Heritage, 1978, p. 3)

“Human beings, that’s all that’s really interesting. You paint and you draw in order to learn how to look at human beings, how to look at yourself.” - M F HUSAIN

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