细节 MAQBOOL FIDA HUSAIN (1913-2011)Untitled (Devdas)signed and dated Husain 002 (upper right)acrylic on canvas70 1/4 x 47 1/8 in. (178.4 x 119.7 cm.)Painted in 2002 来源 Acquired directly from the artistPrivate collection, New York来源详情: Maqbool Fida Husain’s close relationship with the world of cinema is one that lasted over the course of his life, and profoundly influenced his work as an artist. Since his teenage years, Husain has remained in awe of Indian cinema and harbored a desire to become a part of the industry, preferably as a filmmaker. Early in his life, after moving from Indore to Bombay, the artist supported himself by painting billboards for Indian films, a practice that would inform his iconography and style over the course of his career, as well as the ambitious scale of some of his paintings. After painting several personalities from the worlds of Indian and Western films, he also went on to make several films, from the experimental short, Through the Eyes of a Painter, for the Films Division in 1966, to his feature films, Gaja Gamini and Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities, in 2000 and 2004 respectively. It is not surprising that even in the last year of his life, the artist was working on a series of paintings celebrating the centenary of the Indian film industry. One of the Indian films that Husain engaged with and commemorated in several paintings was Devdas, based on the Bengali novel of the same name by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, published in 1917. Chattopadhyay’s novel, a tragic love triangle, centers on the young man Devdas, his childhood love Parvati (Paro) and Chandramukhi, the courtesan who loves him, and has inspired no less than twenty filmed versions over the course of the last century. Husain’s first assignation with this story was when he watched P.C. Barua’s 1936 Hindi adaptation, starring Rajkumari as Chandramukhi. However, it was the pomp surrounding the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s opulent 2002 adaptation that inspired him to create a series of paintings based on Chandramukhi, the ‘eternal enchantress’ of Devdas. It helped that in Bhansali’s film, the role of Chandramukhi was played by Husain’s most well-known muse, Madhuri Dixit, who also starred in his film Gaja Gamini. The present lot, a striking portrait of Chandramukhi from 2002, is rendered in shades of gold and copper, matching the opulence of Bhansali’s film, which premiered the same year. As Chandramukhi gracefully twirls with her skirt and braid flying behind her, we can almost imagine the sound of the bells she wears around her ankles. This is a private performance, however, after the audience and musicians have left, and underscores her devotion to Devdas despite his alcoholism and refusal to return her affection. Tinged with pathos, the main observers here are non-sentient: unattended instruments and a closed copy of Chattopadhyay’s novel on a chair, alluding perhaps to the fact that the tragic end of this story is already foretold. Like several of Husain’s works, the classical Sanskrit notion of rasa (or aesthetic rapture) plays an important role in this painting, and in appreciating Husain’s true mastery as an artist. Committed to the interdisciplinary nature of painting, music, dance, sculpture and film among other art forms, the artist expresses several of these through thoughtfully composed paintings like the present lot, helping his viewers find and experience rasa like he has.