Fida on Husain...

I went to see the Husain exhibit at PEM today. Only having seen his paintings in magazines and such (Sunday, Illustrated Weekly etc), I had never really "beheld" his art (technique, that is) -- his use of color, his broad brush-strokes, his bold outlines...

As you enter the gallery, the Mahabharata mural is to your right -- and it is arresting...what you see on the website does not do justice to the richness of colors and the texture of the original...the Ganesha is a sensuous black wearing a saffron dhoti that somehow contrasts very well...Arjuna's red body exudes raw power and mass..and the horses...the horses...Husain's horses are wild and leaping things...

This mural can be seen as comprising five panels: the first, from the left has Ganga and Yamuna as two counterposed women, one who was responsible for the Kauravas and the other for the Pandavas...

Husain's inscription on that "panel" of the canvas:

"The hues of dark night JAMUNA floats like a black princess, becomes the queen mother of Kauravas, multiheaded monster."

and:

"At the early hours of dew, Ganga bathes white of Surya-Astha. A wandering prince touches the river bank and marries her. Five headed Ashvamedha is born."


The next panel has Ganesha in the lap of Vyasa and these inscriptions:

"You begin in Ganesha. You think of a sage. You paint 'black' and the 'Red' is born."

The third panel depicts a muscle-y, red Arjuna and Draupadi..."Draupadi wraps around the bow. Her hair untied. The great ARCHER in red whose ARROW penetrates the fish eye."

The fourth panel has Bheeshma on his bed of arrows and Karna with his wheel of misfortune: "The chariot wheel gets clamped. The earthly conflict/Death."

Finally, the fifth panel is all about the final destruction, a distraught Gandhari "surveying" all the death and mayhem..."The mother earth witnesses the macabre drama blindfolded. As if it never enacted. Deserted stage burnt and brown Sometimes fire of friction sanctifies the air."

...

I loved some of his other paintings, esp. "Kauravas" (throbbing reds and blacks and a vichitra symmetry) and Bhishma which had a fine interplay of dark colors...

Some of his "smaller" works definitely seemed to have cubist influences, the way he seems to split the images and then fuse them again...

but truly all very impressive...