All Time Greats
MF Husain puts his dot on the universe
At the ripe old age of 91, artist Maqbool Fida (MF) Husain still goes strong. Recently he held forth on his latest muse, actress Amrita Rao. "She has entered my canvas. I will construct an entire exhibition around her," says the prolific Husain of the Vivah heroine. A touch of his obsession with Madhuri Dixit? Comes the quick response: "Hum aapke hain kaun was a fantasy while Vivah is quite realistic; it catches the heartbeat of a young woman in a small town. It is not a great film, it doesn't extend the language of cinema. It conveys the importance of good, clean-cut values, to audiences as well as to the carping critics."Husain is no stranger to controversy. Once he was refused admission to the stuffy Calcutta Club on the grounds that his bare feet violated their dress code. Then in the late 1990s his work became embroiled in religious controversy to the extent that he was forced to flee India because of threats to his life. Apparently he evoked the ire of the diehard Hindus for his portrayal of Hindu deities in the nude. The paintings created in 1970, became an issue when they were printed in a Hindu monthly magazine in 1996. Overseas Husain's art works continue to attract attention. The Peabody Essex Museum (Massachusetts, USA) is holding a solo exhibition of his paintings inspired by the Hindu epic, Mahabharata. The exhibition runs from November 4, 2006 to June 3, 2007. Husain, began his artistic career by painting cinema hoardings and became well-known as an artist in the late 1940s. In 1947, he joined the Progressive Artists Group. The group was a clique of young artists who wished to break with the nationalist traditions established by the Bengal school of art and to encourage Indian avant-garde artists engaged at an international level. In 1952, Husain held his first solo exhibition at Zurich and over the next few years his work was widely viewed in Europe and USA. In 1966, he bagged the prestigious Padma Shree. He has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan. In the following year, he made his first film, Through the eyes of a painter--a winner of a Golden Bear which was viewed at the Berlin Film Festival. Husain went on to achieve the status of the highest paid painter in India. Some of his single canvases fetched up to US $2 million at a Christie's auction. That is not all for his distinction he was appointed to a term in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of India's Parliament. On the silver screen he has also produced and directed some films, including the passable Gaja Gamini (with his favourite Madhuri Dixit who was the subject of a series of paintings which he signed Fida) and Meenaxi: A tale of three cities (with Tabu). His autobiography is being made into a movie, tentatively titled The making of the painter, starring Shreyas Talpade as the young Husain. Husain certainly has put his dot on the universe and inspired a new generation of painters. Compiled by Cultural Correspondent
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MF Husain's self portrait |
