Kumhar (Toy Series)

Nearly three decades before M. F. Husain created this work, when he was yet to find his way into the top levels of modern Indian art, the self-taught artist was painting cinema poster and hoardings, and making wooden toys and furniture in Bombay. This gouache work featuring a potter with his wares is a hark back to those days when the artist was still on the fringes of mainstream art but his genius reflected through all that he created. It’s not just the skilled execution of lines but the rootedness of his concepts, as evident in his toys and toy series of works, that would catapult him to international stardom.