"BETWEEN THE SPIDER AND THE LAMP" Painting in 1956, "Between the spider and the Lamp" is still M.F. Hussain's most characteristic work. The painting embodies all the ingredients of his style. There is the figuration and there is the mystique - the magic of an intuitively conceived situation which is perceptible but inexplicable. In this memorable painting we encounter the characters of Hussain's dream world. They enact an episode or a situation which we recall as something we experienced but long, long ago and far away, as it were, in our dreams or as bits of poetry separated from their contexts combining to form a new whole. The figures, the characters, the five women in the painting are solidly formed, that is, depicted in strong outline and with a draughtsmanship which is superb. Each head and profile and torso is expressive in stance and in characterization.

Evocative colour, used directly and daringly, further differentiates each person. A central panel of red sets off the figures and the top grey panel connects with the bottom through a passage formulated by the figure on the extreme left. In these grey panels are the key symbols - a lamp and an undecipherable script in the top and a spider in the bottom linked to the central figure by its thread, Both night and day are suggested, as well as twilight, if we go by the complexions of the figures, white yellow, amber and blue-mauve, and the flame of the lamp and by what could be constellations in the sky, the script. Two hands are held ingestures: the heads look in different directions but appear to revolve. The person on the extreme left, it seems, is speaking, addressing the others.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India