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M F HUSAIN
(1913‒2011)
Untitled
Signed ‘Husain’ (centre)
Oil on wood with wire and nail pasted on mountboard
Height: 6.25 in (15.88 cm)
Board size: 14.75 x 18.75 in (37.7 x 47.7 cm)
$ 13,515 ‒ 20,275
Rs 10,00,000 ‒ 15,00,000
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
Thence by descent
Private Collection, New Delhi
Saffronart, New Delhi, 20 September 2018, lot 53 a)
M F Husain
Image courtesy of the artist
The present lot reveal Husain’s command over his visual
language and versatility of working in varied mediums.
Husain executed the wooden reliefs, the interplay of colour,
form, and line, with the same ease as he does with figures
on canvas or paper. His experiments with toys began for
personal reasons –prompted by the birth of his daughter –
before it took on a commercial or aesthetic flavour. “Making
toys has really been an aesthetic adventure for Husain,
inspired by the arrival of his first daughter, he sat down to
create a few things which would please and perhaps amuse
her. Fond sentiments of the father combine with the vision
of the artist in him to offer the little one a rare reception.
But Husain the artist got better of Husain the father… he
undoubtedly succeeded in creating through these toys a
world of fantasy to please a child, but the artists creative
prowess was much too large to be circumscribed by the
boundaries of a child’s vision, which is the single most
important factor that determines the design of a toy.” (Ram
Chatterjee,
Husain’s Toys
, Bombay, 1960, p. 3)
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