Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts and Books | April 2017

“In the evolution of human civilization, animals and birds, though quite often taken for granted, have played an important role and sensitive artists have celebrated them in their creative expressions…In Indian classical and folk dance-drama, several movements and characters are adapted from animal forms. Animals and birds have appeared in Indian sculpture since ancient times... Husain is an inheritor of this classical and folk tradition that he reformulates for his own purpose as a modern artist... Husain generally removes his animal figures from their traditional context or natural environment and places them in a new setting that invests themwith new meanings. In addition, he experiments with their forms and gives them new forms transcending realism. One of his most perennial obsessions as an artist has been the form of the horse... Husain’s encounter with horses began in his childhood in Indore. These encounters came in several forms with different associations, inspiring different emotions...Another major source for Husain’s horses is the iconic Duldul, Imam Husain’s horse in the battle of Karbala, whose decorated image was carried during the Muharram processions in Indore that Husain had often watched in his boyhood... Husain similarly reaches out to other ritualistic and mythical sources of the horse such as the horses in the Chariot of the Sun God in the Konark temple and Asvamedha that was the standard bearer of an emperor who wanted his supremacy to be acknowledged by smaller kings and chieftains. Thus, for Husain, the meaning of horse as symbol and as a motif continues to grow over the years and acquires resonances that are not confined only to its formal values or to its associations with man in activities of war and peace.” – Singh, K. Bikram. Maqbool Fida Husain . New Delhi: Rahul & Art 2008; pp.169-171. “Apart from these diverse Indian sources Husain has also been influenced by some foreign sources in evolving his unique horses…’He studied the Sung dynasty renderings of horses’ (Refer to Shiv S. Kapur. Husain…). In addition, Husain also specifically acknowledges his debt to the horses of Xu Beihong. At the time of Husain’s visit to China (1952), Xu Beihong was the President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts of China and was known for his images of galloping horses with raised mane, exuding power and vitality without provoking any sense of fear... According to some scholars, Husain was also influenced in his treatment of the horse by Franz Marc (1880-1916) and Mario Marini (1901- 1980)... Franz Marc believed in the unity of man, animal and nature and credited animals with a spirituality higher than that attained by man. His paintings of animals though in expressive and intense colours always imbue his subjects with gentleness and serenity. In this context, it is relevant to remember that the concept of unity of all forms of life - plant, animal, human and even the so called inanimate objects - is an integral part of the Indian philosophical thought, as well as the ancient Indian artistic and literary traditions.”– Singh, K. Bikram. Maqbool Fida Husain . New Delhi: Rahul & Art 2008; pp.171-176. Lot 64 Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts & Books | 141