The maverick and his art: MF Husain across six decades

In a subdued 1972 ink and wax connected paper, a falcon sits connected its back, and the rubric Nude connected a Horse is descriptive of the canvas. “Husain’s influences were wide and appeared to usage the equine to talk crossed communities and to regional, nationalist and planetary audiences,” notes creation historiographer Rakhee Balaram, successful a work accompanying the exhibition.

Titled “Husain: The Timeless Modernist”, the showcase features implicit 115 works, from 1950s to 2000s. In 2006, the creator went connected a self-imposed exile pursuing aggregate tribunal cases that accused him of hurting spiritual sentiments with his nude portrayal of Hindu gods and goddesses and a nude Bharat Mata. Though successful consequent years, the courts exonerated him, the creator did not instrumentality to India, and passed distant successful London successful 2011.

“He continues to workout a fascination for astir Indians arsenic a typical of 20th-century modernism arsenic nary different Indian creator earlier him. Even truthful galore years aft his passing, helium remains 1 of the astir admired of our artists. It was to analyse this enduring entreaty and to wage homage to this well-regarded creator that we decided to curate an accumulation that offered an overarching presumption of the diverseness and scope of his work,” says Ashish Anand, CEO and managing director, DAG.

MF Husain’s enactment astatine the accumulation — Bharat Bhagya Vidhata Credit: Photo Courtesy: DAG

Incidentally, 1 of the cardinal pieces successful the accumulation is the Bharat Mata successful Bharat Bhagya Vidhata. The contours of her assemblage mimic the representation of the nation, with her limbs folded to signifier the triangular peninsula. The details see the mighty Himalayas lasting above, and a fig of Mahatma Gandhi with his walking instrumentality below.

In the publication, Balaram notes, “Bharat Mata arsenic the goddess of the federation acts simultaneously arsenic an inspiration and an aspiration, with the angle, triangle and different geometrical forms pointing towards borders and their calculations: identity, summation and elimination.”

The 78 × 69 inch, 1990 acrylic connected canvas — that shares its sanction with an iconic mural created by Husain for the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research successful Bombay successful 1963-64 — features successful the accumulation successful the conception “Idea of the Nation”, that reflects connected Husain’s thought of nationhood and secularism. This includes works that emerged from his travels crossed the state arsenic good arsenic those influenced by spiritual traditions and texts specified the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. It besides features a bid of photographs from the streets of India and works dedicated to Albanian-Indian Catholic nun Mother Teresa, whom helium reportedly archetypal sketched astatine Palam airport, Delhi, successful 1979.

The conception “Freedom of Form” includes his enactment drawings and works from the series, “That Obscure Object of Desire”, that stemmed from his fascination with Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel’s 1977 movie of the aforesaid name. Then there’s “Kumhar”, a bid of toys designed by Husain successful the 1970s — a reminder of his aboriginal career, erstwhile helium designed toys and furnishings astatine a children’s workplace successful Mumbai.

The conception “Deciphering Desire” analyses the women helium depicted from each walks of life, including his precocious parent draped successful a Maharashtrian sari, figures from mythology, women from mean beingness to Gupta and Khajuraho sculptures, nationalist figures similar Mother Teresa and movie stars similar Madhuri Dixit.

The publication besides discusses the variant symbolism of the veteran’s work, wherever the portrayals carried deeper meanings. The cow, for instance, represented productivity, and the umbrella denoted shelter. The footwear portrayed question done abstraction and time.

While each enactment is simply a testament to Husain’s creator ingenuity, successful “Monochrome Musings” the viewers person a person brushwood with the artist’s spontaneous brushwork. “He was known for creating speedy sketches connected immoderate disposable aboveground that was astatine hand, from edifice tabletops, napkins, to margins of newspapers, capturing moments, radical and places with immediacy and fluidity,” reads the substance from the book.

In the conception “Conversations and Connections”, we are introduced to his versatile portraits — of himself, those who influenced him and his patrons. “Regardless of the style, what they person successful communal is simply a heavy affectional intensity,” says the text.

The consequent pages diagnostic his self-portraits, commissioned portraits of the Keehn family, with whom helium developed adjacent relations and writer Ved Mehta connected a canvas signed successful Hindi, among others.

“Husain’s beingness and creation are intrinsically intertwined, and you cannot abstracted 1 from the other. Almost each his collectors person their favourite Husain stories. He had charisma arsenic nary different idiosyncratic I’ve known; his beingness was electrifying… As radical go much acquainted with his work, his fable volition lone grow,” notes Anand.