Osian's Auction Catalogue Masterpieces and Museum-Quality III | March 2004

127 MASTERPIECES & MUSEUM-QUALITY III “ After a number of years in which the imagery was centered primarily on the human form, in recent years – since about 1965 – Bakre has introduced architectural motifs into his painting. Where the earlier figure-inspired work was soft and the drawing made in terms of the loaded brush, these later works are necessarily harder, the drawn line that much more apparent and clearcut – the difference, in fact, between flesh and stone. After the years of expressive painterly (malerisch) brushwork the line now contains a more directly controlled consciousness of architectural forms… there remains that mastery of his craft which reveals line and paint combining to an expressive control of calculated power.” (Bruce James, in ‘A passage from India – Seven painters in London’, rpt. in LKC No.9, Sept. 1968 ; p.27.) Man Oil on canvas, 1950 Zameen (detail) Oil on canvas, 1955 Family Oil on canvas, 1961 Untitled Oil on canvas, early 1970s Vishwamitra Oil on canvas, mid 1970s Select works by M.F. Husain, 1950–70s