M F HUSAIN (1915 - 2011)

PRIVATE COLLECTION, MUMBAI

This magnificent painting by Husain is from the creative phase of the late 1960s or early 70s. Horses had become his personal metaphor for speed, beauty and grace. In them he had united the folk elements of his native land, the spirit of the Chinese horses and the modernist formalism of Europe. Impressions of the Jain and Basholi miniatures are evinced in the bright colour palette and the stark allusion in defining space. The subject of the Sun and horses, appear again and again in his work, perhaps in insinuation of the Hindu mythology of the Sun God and his seven horses. Husain explores the idea of motion by showing multiple movements of a single horse, capturing its graceful gait in slow motion. Colours, bright and resplendent, are applied in thick layers with brushes and careful impasto treatment of a palate knife employed in giving a structured physicality to the horses. The impasto work continues to the immediate backdrop but only as a hint. On the right, the Sun features round and prominent, invoking a colourful ambience of romanticised energy.