From Motif To Movement

As a visual homage to the iconography that made him a household name, Equus: Husain’s Eternal Horses decodes the sculptural renditions of Tyche by AstaGuru. This series of limited edition sculptures underline M.F. Husain’s most enduring images. The book traces the horse’s journey from Husain’s canvases into three-dimensional form while bringing together the artistic, formal, and cultural dimensions that have made the motif so central to his practice.

Few subjects in Husain’s oeuvre carry the immediacy of the horse. Its presence can be traced to childhood memories of the ceremonial Duldul horse of Muharram processions in Indore, but engagement with art histories and visual traditions shaped its eventual form. 

Husain encountered the horse through European modernism, Chinese painting, Indian folk traditions and his own evolving pictorial language. For him, the horse was never simply an emblem of speed. It could embody instinct, desire, violence, power and vitality, shifting meaning according to the world around it. Its muscular presence and restless movement allowed him to negotiate the space between figuration and abstraction, while geometry provided a structure through which that movement could be controlled. 

In bronze, translating this language presents a distinct challenge. The implied movement must acquire actual physical volume. The sculptural renditions translate Husain’s abbreviated forms and kinetic tension into vivid objecture. The book documents this passage between mediums, showing how Husain’s most recognisable motif can leave the canvas, yet retain its vitality.

Published by The Arts Trust, in association with AstaGuru (price on request).