Slacker Art

This is Modes of Transport, painted by M. F. Husain in 2008-2011.

This amazing piece was painted by the artist during the last three years of his life, when he was 93-95 years old! It is quite large IRL, so even the physical feat itself is impressive. And it only makes sense that a work so epic in scope was assigned to the reflective denouement of life.

This triptych covers different modes of transportation in modern India, using daily genre scenes, spiritual folklore and his personal narrative as the context. It strikes me that all these scenes are positive. Everything is moving forward, into the future. The riders and drivers are having fun, even being joyous on occasion. The child on the scooter has the exact same excited expression as the woman in the car. The presumed patriarch of her family is perched with a baton as if in a parade. The scooter family seems to be having the most fun. The PBS Car Talk guys once said that riding a scooter was their favorite way to travel in terms of pure fun. There is also a lot of romance in this. Even the oxen seem to be in a sensual dance while pulling the cart.

I’m not a huge fan of transportation myself. Never the patient one, it confuses me how much of travel is spent waiting, i.e. not traveling. But it is a requirement of modern life and this painting brings forward the hope that is associated with going somewhere.