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| Vol. 2, Issue 09 September 2010 |
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Reporting & Essays |
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Essay |
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Understanding Husain
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| How his multi-religious art has been fashioned |
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By K BIKRAM SINGH
Published : 1 March 2010 |
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| ‘Gandhi,’ 2004, acrylic on canvas.
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FIRST MET MAQBOOL FIDA HUSAIN IN 1967, when a retrospective of his work was organised by Pundole Art Gallery on the premises of Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, then called Bombay. Husain, who first attracted media attention in 1947 when one of his works shown in the annual exhibition of the Bombay Art Society had won a prize, had become a public icon by 1967. |
During that brief encounter I couldn’t help noticing that just like the vigorous energy of his work Husain himself was full of life. Over the next 40 years we kept meeting at different forums related to art as well as cinema, which he was also passionate about. At times, we shared a meal at his house in Jangpura or his son Shamsad’s house, in another Delhi neighbourhood. During those meals I noticed another thing: this man with an enormous appetite for life eats very little.
The last time we met was in London, in October 2009; he had invited me over for a meal in an upper-class Chinese restaurant. By this time, I had written a book (Maqbool Fida Husain) that was an overview of his work from 1947 to 2007, and our relationship had become close. There were four of us at the table, including a woman friend of Husain visiting from India. The table was laden with food and while we were gorging ourselves, Husain flirted with the food and a glass of wine. He was telling me how he was creating a remix of various elements that had dominated his work, the horse, the female figure, eternal cities like Benaras, myths both classical and modern. It was then I asked him whether he still wanted to come back to India. For a moment he became somewhat pensive and then asked, “Is the government really serious?”
He was, of course, referring to various recent reports in the media suggesting that the central government was making an effort to bring Husain back. His question was a sad rhetoric because we both knew that the government really didn’t care. Husain has been in exile for nearly four years now. He has built a new life for himself in Dubai, Qatar and London. He has settled one of his sons and several nephews in Dubai, who are all devoted to him. In London, he usually lives in a serviced apartment on an annual rent. Qatar has assigned a separate gallery for his work in its Museum of Islamic Art. Surrounded by luxury and with no need to work for a living, he still wakes up before sunrise and paints for several hours, like a classical musician doing his daily riyaaz. Once this routine is over, he gets ready to face the world, to meet friends or go out for lunch with guests. But despite leading a full life abroad, he wants to come back. If for nothing else, to enjoy the company of his old friends, his grandchildren and perhaps to drink tea at his favourite Irani teashop in Mumbai.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, several criminal cases had been filed against Husain in different parts of India for ‘causing offence to the religious sensibilities’ of Hindus and for depicting obscenity. Some of these cases were combined in a revision petition before the Delhi High Court in 2007. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, in his judgement of May 2008, quashed the criminal proceedings against Husain on both counts. A few other criminal cases against him with similar accusations are still pending in other courts, but there is technically no legal ban on his return.
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Husain in London. |
Yet his return is still risky. He could be arrested to avoid communal outrage, and there is a real and constant danger of physical assault. Husain’s tormentors have repeatedly issued open threats of serious repercussions to the organisers of art events if they even hinted at showing Husain’s works. Most organisers, such as the annual Art Summit in Delhi, get cowed down because, ultimately, their objective is not to promote or defend artistic freedom of expression but to make money. A few cultural organisations such as Sahmat (Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust) of Delhi that defy such threats and display Husain’s works on special occasions have come under attack from Hindu fanatics. In 2008, an exhibition organised by Sahmat as a protest against Husain’s exclusion from the Art Summit was targeted by vandals who destroyed at least a dozen artworks, worth millions of rupees. Unfortunately, neither the central government nor the state governments concerned have taken any action against such threats or given assurances that they would protect Husain and his works. Thus, an extremist and fundamentalist section of Hindu community has succeeded in imposing a ban on the return of Husain, and the Government of India has acquiesced.
It therefore becomes important to understand the nature of Husain’s work, the meaning of Husain as a symbol and the changed filters of our time through which he and his works are now viewed. Is there something in his work that can legitimately cause offence to the sensibilities of a Hindu? Has Husain become a symbol of a multi-religious and multicultural India, where the followers of Hindutva consider him a threat to their concept of Hinduism and a Hindu India? Art is supposed to be an autonomous activity. But this is only a half-truth. Art, like literature, is rooted in the mud of its times. A crucial part of an artist’s mental makeup, like that of most people, is formed in the early years of growing up. Education, acquisition of skills, exposure to new ideas and contemplation do play a role in stimulating creative expression but so do lived experiences. It is then relevant to go back to the formative years of Maqbool Fida Husain to gain an insight into his art. | | | |
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Readers' Comments |
Total Comments
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Ajar
22 March 2010
08:56 PM
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I recently got a string email on M.F. Husain's art works being derogatory to Hindu religion , and was compelled to explore this issue in more depth as I did not want to subscribe to the shallow propaganda being circulated around without understanding the artists sensibility while doing his works. Thanks, for providing this informative article which provides a background of his life and thought process . I hope more people read this article rather than being gullible to narrow propaganda and try to see the artists works through his eyes rather than remaining prejudiced with a viewpoint of his art rooted in ''mud of its time".
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