Kerala V Fish and Banana by MF Husain

Market life becomes art. In this painting, Husain shows women with baskets of fish and bananas, Kerala’s staples of sustenance. Their forms are simple yet monumental, giving dignity to everyday abundance.

Lines move in curves and loops, linking figures to produce, labour to livelihood. Tones of grey, white, and black dominate leaves, fruit, fish, and brown earthy tones. The women’s bodies rise like pillars of resilience, their baskets crowns of work.

The language of the work is the visual poetry of trade and survival. The painting honours Kerala as land of water, fertility, and food. It is not exotic, but human, a picture anyone can recognise, work, exchange, community.

This serigraph is Husain’s ode to everyday Kerala, where even the market carries rhythm, colour, and ritual.