Culture of the Streets

Bombay: Pundoles, circa 1981

A photographic portfolio by Husain containing 20 big sized photos on metallic photo glossy paper with one-page introduction by Khalid Mohammed,
45.7 x 35.5 cm

This rare folder of iconic photographs done by M. F. Husain, perhaps India's most widely-known modern artist, in conjunction with Chester and Davida Herwitz, who built the largest collection of Modern Indian art in the United States, and worked directly with Husain on many projects throughout their lifetimes.

The photography in this series is inspired by Husain's early years as a billboard painter for Indian cinema during its explosion in the mid-20th century, and often presents stunning, yet playful, juxtapositions with the large glamorous cinematic images forming a backdrop to the frenetic life and crowds of the modern Indian streets.

The photographs encapsulated three worlds - the man on the street (reality), the towering, larger-than-life dashing images of heroes and heroines of cinema (fantasy), and the endless blue sky looking down on the play of destiny.

Chester Herwitz commented on the revelations of these images by stating there are discoveries to be made in Husain's integration of the people beneath, beside, and in front of the hoardings, in the rich contrast of colours, the similarity of movement on the street and in the hoardings, in the contradictions that can be read in the scrawled graffiti and the peeled and faded paintings.