Important Notice

M F Husain, a lifelong student of the Indian figure, was drawn to traditional Indian dance forms as expressions of movement. He rejected the imposed universality of Western figuration and developed his own figurative language from classical Indian sculpture. He spoke about his decision to draw from his roots in order to do justice to the physicality of the Indian people, “One reason why I went back to the Gupta period of sculpture was to study... M F Husain, a lifelong student of the Indian figure, was drawn to traditional Indian dance forms as expressions of movement. He rejected the imposed universality of Western figuration and developed his own figurative language from classical Indian sculpture. He spoke about his decision to draw from his roots in order to do justice to the physicality of the Indian people, “One reason why I went back to the Gupta period of sculpture was to study the human form-when the British ruled we were taught to draw a figure with the proportions from Greek and Roman sculpture... In the East, the human form is an entirely different structure... The way a woman walks in the village there are three breaks, from the feet, the hips and shoulder... they move in rhythm.” (The artist quoted in Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Metaphor for Modernity,” The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 102)

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