SAN JOSE MUSEUM OF ART
 
Modern and Contemporary Art from India
February 25, 2011 through September 4, 2011, San Jose Museum of Art
 
 
  UNTITLED (Lady with Lamp), ca. 1960
Oil on canvas
49 ¾ x 35 ¾ inches
Collection of Asha and Rajeev Motwani
Photo: Courtesy Sotheby’s, Inc

 
 
Maqbool Fida Husain
 
Born 1915, Pundharpur, Maharashtra, India
Died 2011 in London

 
This painting exemplifies Maqbool Fida Husain’s early work, which features robust peasant women. Husain demonstrated his signature style: an earthy palette and a dramatically fractured human figure. The color scheme derives from that of Indian miniatures, and the jagged, expressionistic lines evoke the work of European modernists such as Max Beckmann.