The Pride of India

In Rememberance



Maqbool Fida Husain (17 September 1915 - 9 June 2011) was often referred to as the "Picasso of India" and influenced a whole generation of artists in our country. Husain was a painter and a showman at the same time, who courted the canvas and controversy with equal élan. At the end though, it was this penchant for controversy, which was responsible for the way he passed away outside the country, which was where he always wanted to return. It was because of his paintings that he had to leave the country as certain Hindu hardliner outfits thought his paintings were compromising the sanctity of the religion. As a result, Husain in his nineties had to accept a new citizenship from Qatar.

Husain was associated with Indian modernism in the 1940s. A dashing, highly eccentric figure who dressed in Saville Row suits and brandished an extra-long paintbrush. He never maintained a studio but he spread his canvases out on the floor of whatever hotel room he happened to be staying in and paying for damages when he checked out. He was fond of classic sports cars, big houses and yet went around barefoot. Enormously prolific, a gifted self-promoter and hard bargainer, he claimed to have produced some 60,000 paintings. But when questioned about such prolificacy by Michael Peschardt of the BBC in one of the last interviews he gave on May 27, 2011, he replied that "All this talk about inspiration and moment is nonsense. Excuse us". He amassed a fortune but maintained a bank balance of zero. He applied the formal lessons of European modernists like Cézanne and Matisse to scenes from national epics like the Mahabharata, Ramayana and to the Hindu pantheon.

His narrative paintings, executed in a modified Cubist style, can be caustic and funny as well as serious and sombre. His themes usually treated in series included topics as diverse as Mohandas K. Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Indira Gandhi, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the British Raj, and motifs of Indian urban and rural life. One of the most celebrated and internationally recognized Indian artists of the 20th century, who was showered with the highest civil honours of the country of his origin, he also received recognition as a printmaker, photographer, and filmmaker, changing his muse with the rise of every new Bollywood heroine from Madhuri Dixit (with whom he shot his tribute to Bollywood, Gaja Gamini) to Anushka Sharma.

Husain was and still is one of the most bankable among Indian artists. The day he died, Bonham's Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art sale in London was topped by three of his paintings, going under the hammer for Rs 2.32 crore with an untitled oil work that combines his iconic subject matters - horse and woman - fetching Rs 1.23 crore alone. Ironically, Husain who formed the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group with the likes of Gaitonde, Raza and Souza was the last among his compatriots to achieve the million dollar mark. The trend of Indian painters crossing the million dollar mark started with Tyeb Mehta way back in 2005. But Husain had to wait till 2008, to reach his then highest at $1.1 million or Rs 4.4 crore in 2008, in an auction organised by Emami Chisel Art Auction House in Kolkata. The painting was done in 1989, as a tribute to slain theatre artiste and activist Safdar Hashmi.

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