Horses as metaphor for tremendous energy, and exquisite grace and beauty. There are ten horses cutting across the horizon like lightning, and in between appears a baby horse wearing the nuclear crown, an indication that the world has entered the most dynamic nuclear era of its billions of years of existence. Here, there on the canvas, a few images of industry, agriculture, progress and family planning are inserted. The bold, black brush-strokes are like calligraphic form. In a way these black strokes become a "writing on the wall." The world should take a note of it!
Every artist has his/her zenith where energy is boundless and creativity is at its peak. The painting. Lightning, was born under such auspices in the year 1975. It was a critical time in Indian politics- activists and artists alike expressed their feelings in various forms through different media. It was at this time that Husain created Lightning for a political gathering in Bombay that was led by Indira Gandhi. The significance of the painting is heightened not only by its sheer size or the brilliant rendering of its subject by the artist but also the time it was executed and the ideologies it stands for.
This book was conceived in honor of Husain, who has always been extremely gracious, hospitable and who paved the way to my deeper understanding of contemporary Indian art. It is through Husain that I learned the importance of various leading trends and schools of Indian art, how to appreciate a work of art and what to collect. He introduced me to all the other senior artists who were his contemporaries, as well as younger talents. Husain was the catalyst in expanding my horizon to the contemporary Indian art scene, and to date continues to help me in my endeavors in collecting and promoting Indian art in the United States.
Selected authors were invited to write on Lightning and each essay is beautifully composed and addresses the painting as well as its creator from various angles. Susan S. Bean, in her essay. seeks out the sources of inspiration for Husain and his fascination for horses from the East. Flamboyant with his language, Daniel Herwitz, on the other hand, addresses Lightning as his main subject and situates it in its socio-political context. However, his approach is also more semiotic in nature and therefore presents a personal interpretation of the various colors and forms used by the artist in this painting. Prasannan Parthasarathi's essay focuses on Husain as an artist and on his contribution to modern Indian art. Gayatri Sinha's piece is quite academic in nature. She situates the painting in its historical context and further explains the symbols used by the artist and their significance in relation to the current situation under which they were painted. Similar to Sinha's essay, Boon Hui Tan's essay is very academic in nature, where he talks about the painting Lightning and its historic significance in the year that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed a state of Emergency across India, and further talks about the multitude of visual references to India in the 1970s and many of the challenges and controversies facing India at the time. He also expands to compare Indian art in the Emergency period to the Cultural Revolution in China and the art within a changing political context.
Various anecdotal stories and interviews on Lightning form a part of this book. It is an attempt to create a whole story around this masterpiece; every brush stroke and every inch of the canvas has a story, secretly tucked away in the midst of the powerfully rendered horses, that is left for the beholder to decipher.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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