"When did you last see a solo of Husain sahab?" asks art curator, documentarian and collector Ina Puri, underscoring in a stroke the significance of Essential Forms, an exhibition of unseen cut-outs by MF Husain, the master of modern Indian painting. Acquired by Emami Art in Kolkata more than 10 years ago, the show has unveiled a startling set of two-dimensional cut-outs - shapely blocks of primary colours on plywood which are big, bold silhouettes of human and animal figures. It stands testimony to the versatility of an artist who could work across diverse mediums with equal ease.
"These cut-outs were made around 2008. We have pictures of him making the chalk outlines on plywood. At his age, you have to be remarkably agile to make these cut-outs from wood as they are large works," says Puri curator of Essential Forms where one can see a rotating cast of characters - be it a charging bull in black with its head down or a man in red with serrated edges doing a somersault, from women bound together or trying to break out of a frame to the figure of Krishna playing the flute on a three-headed bull rendered in a delightful mosaic of colours.
"I was privileged enough to have known Husain sahab and met him several times. At some point, we had gone and attended the shooting of the film Gaja Gamini (2000) and that is where I had seen huge cutouts (which were different from these). The scale of it was mind-boggling. And with M.F. Husain, it's always the scale that is striking, be it his paintings or cut-outs or his composition on celluloid," says Puri. "For these works, the artist drew on plywood the outlines of the protagonist in chalk and cut out the form before painting over it. The subjects were inspired by the ancestral spirits of man, deity and beast in a sacred space," says Puri in a curatorial note.
"Aesthetically, like Matisse’s famous cut-outs, they stand halfway between a drawing and sculpture, showing the rhythm of cutting and sensuality, actively interacting with the architectural setting around," says Richa Agarwal, CEO, Emami Art and Chairperson at Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC) in a press note. "The works, called Ahmedabad Series, were created based on the designs of the cut-outs Husain himself made and installed in Amdavad Gufa in Gujarat, the unique architectural project he and the great architect, B.V. Doshi, together conceived," adds Agarwal.
Essential Forms in on view till February 28 at KCC in Kolkata.