Husain’s Bhopal up for auction in UK
Legendary artist M.F. Husain’s landmark painting Bhopal, which depicts the horrors of the 1984 gas leak tragedy in the Indian city, is set to be auctioned here, with a pre-sale estimate of up to £300,000.
Auctioneer Bonhams will sell the painting along with pioneering artwork by Indian master artists such as Sayed Haider Raza and Francis Newton Souza, during the October 8 Indian and Islamic Art Sale at London’s New Bond Street.
The oil on canvas painting framed and signed by Husain strongly echoes Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, and is estimated at a value of £200,000-300,000, Bonhams said.
In 1984, Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, experienced one of the worst gas leaks in world history, killing thousands of people. Just as Picasso’s passion and outrage towards the Spanish Civil War had inspired him to create Guernica (1937), Bhopal was the result of Husain’s horror at the long-lasting effects of the leak, considered one of the world’s worst industrial disasters. Husain’s artistic response might have been influenced by Picasso’s, but his artwork was first and foremost inspired by his surroundings. “The subject might be macabre, but that’s what makes it a landmark work. Husain paints with bright colours to give the grim reality of destruction power and a flicker of light,” Nour Aslam, Head of Modern and Contemporary South Asian and Middle Eastern Art, said.
Along with Bhopal, Bindu, by Sayed Haider Raza is the second highest valued item on sale.
This framed acrylic on canvas painting is expected to fetch between £100,000 and £150,000. Raza began the Bindu series in the late 1980s. Every part of the painting has its own meaning: Every colour, shape, and design symbolises a different emotion and a different theology. For Raza, the division of the canvas is an act of meditation, and the Bindu is the centre of calm. Untitled by Indian artist Francis Newton Souza is another highlight of the auction. The painting is framed and mounted, and estimated at a value of £40,000-60,000. The appeal of Untitled comes from Souza’s unusual “cake-like” method of painting and his use of rich colours.
Another highlight of the auction is Four Figures by Pakistani artist Sadequain. This framed oil on canvas is signed, dated, and titled.
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