MF Husain’s artistic treasure on Kashi up for auction | Lucknow News

Lucknow: ‘Untitled (Benares)’, a rare painting of painter M F Husain, will be among the artworks at the Saffronart’s Spring Live and Online Auctions this year. Estimated at Rs 10-15 crore, this Husain work is a vibrant tribute to the sacred city’s timeless spirit. The masterpiece captures the essence of Kashi’s ghats, blending spirituality and everyday life with bold, expressive strokes.Building on the momentum of its 25th anniversary year, marked by multiple record-breaking results and white-glove sales, Saffronart auction will be held in Mumbai on Apr 1 while online auction will be held on Apr 1-2.According to Saffronart, Husain traced the rhythms of everyday life at Kashi’s famous ghats. He first visited the city in early 1960 with his friend and contemporary, Ram Kumar. They stayed at the house of Shripat Rai, writer Premchand’s son, in the Godowlia area. After visiting the city, Husain had said: “If in 1948 I saw the quintessence of Indian art in Delhi, in Benares I saw the essence of India. At the level of thought, this left a very deep impression.”Saffronart’s Spring Auction Catalogue says Husain was confronted with the eternal cycle of life and death that played out before his eyes each day at its teeming ghats. He had later recalled, “…we sat at Manikarnika Ghat, watching the dead being brought to the Ganga and then cremated. To our dismay, we found ourselves crying at the spectacle. By afternoon, the spirit of revelry to which we had remained oblivious impinged upon our consciousness. Every new body for cremation was accompanied by the sound of shehnai, bringing home the inescapable truth that sadness and suffering were of our own making, while the celebration around was the real Benares. For here the soul was finally freed from the cycle of birth, death and suffering.” Husain’s Benares is vibrant and alive with activity. Critic Geeta Kapur observed, “Husain’s art originates from his tactile contact with life and brings to it an interpretative insight, recognising the moment when the subject reveals its truth. He establishes a relationship with the movement of life, yet his art is not of the moment, it is not ephemeral.” The quivering lines that characterised Husain’s Benares sketches and serigraphs from the 1960s and 1970s give way in this work to strong, confident strokes. They suggest a deeper engagement with the city and an apparent reconciliation of its many contradictions and a more nuanced grasp of its spiritual connotations. According to the catalogue, Husain had recollected, “There were several women among the dead who were young, shapely and beautiful. They lay there propped up on the slope, their feet touching the Ganges, profusely adorned as brides. And strangely, I felt an exhilarating sense of freedom. As if all barriers between life and death were broken down. This could happen only in my country… in a country where even death is beautiful and joyous-a means of recycling. Everything was so unageing and ageless, and death a non- reality, a non-issue.”At the centre of the auctions is a remarkable group of works that helped shape the evolution of modern Indian art, alongside rare antiquities, sculptures, and contemporary masterpieces. The catalogue features notable works by Raja Ravi Varma, M F Husain, S H Raza, F N Souza, and the American Orientalist Edwin Lord Weeks, among others.Leading the sale is Raja Ravi Varma’s ‘Yashoda and Krishna’ — one of the most accomplished and emotionally resonant works by the artist. Painted in the 1890s, at the height of Varma’s career, the painting interprets the universal theme of maternal love through the mythological figures of the infant Lord Krishna and his foster mother, Yashoda. With very few of Ravi Varma’s oil paintings remaining in private hands today, the work represents a matchless opportunity for collectors to acquire a masterpiece by one of India’s most prolific artists.Another important highlight is a rare early Kashmiri bronze sculpture of Buddha, formerly in the collection of noted collectors Nalini and Haridas Swali. “We are pleased to open our auction calendar with a wide-ranging catalogue of modern and contemporary art, sculpture, and antiquities in our Spring Live and Online Auctions. It is a privilege to have Yashoda and Krishna, a truly exceptional painting by Raja Ravi Varma, lead the sale as it comes to auction for the first time,” Dinesh Vazrani, CEO & co-founder of Saffronart.