M F HUSAIN

Interior arts and artefacts

• Date of Birth: September 17, 1915
• Place of Birth: Pandharpur, Maharashtra, India
• Date of Death: June 9, 2011
• Place of Death: London, England
• Professions: Painting, drawing, filmmaking
• Spouse: Fazila Bibi
• Children: Shamshad Husain, Raisa Husain, Mustafa Husain, Owais
Husain, Shafaat Husain, Aqueela Husain
• Awards: Padma Bhushan (1973), Padma Vibhushan (1991)
INTRODUCTION
• Maqbool Fida Husain was one of the most famous artists of India,
known all over the world.
• M. F. Husain was called the 'Picasso of India' by the Forbes
magazine.
• Husain was largely responsible in modernizing Indian art as he was
one of the most influential founding members of Bombay
Progressive Artists' Group.
• During the course of his career, Hussain also tried his hand at
printmaking, photography and filmmaking
• Apart from receiving the prestigious National Film Award under
Best Experimental Film for his movie ‘Through the Eyes of a Painter’,
he also made ‘Gaja Gamini’ and ‘Meenaxi: A Tale of Three
Cities’.
• Hussain met with heavy criticisms during the final phases of his
career. The criticisms flew in for his nude depictions of Hindu
goddesses, which ultimately forced him to seek asylum in
countries like Qatar and England. Husain never made it back to
his motherland and the debates surrounding his exile continued
for many days even after his demise.
CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE
• Husain lost his mother when he was only
one and a half years old. After a few
months, his father remarried and moved
to Indore, where Hussain completed his
schooling. For a few years during his
teenager life, Hussain stayed in Baroda,
where he picked up the art of
calligraphy. His exposure to calligraphy,
he gradually developed interest towards
art and decided to become an artist. He
moved to Bombay in 1935 and enrolled
at the famous Sir J.J. School of Art.
EARLY CAREER
Husain started his painting career as a
painter of cinema hoardings. By the early
1930s, Hindi cinema was flourishing with
as many as 200 films per year and the
advertising market was badly in need of
high quality painters. Husain used this
opportunity to take care of his daily
needs. He also started working for a toy
company, where he designed and
made some innovative toys. He was also
in touch with his mates from J. J. School
of Art and was waiting for the right
opportunity to contribute towards the
evolution of Indian art.
Formation of the Progressive Artists’ Group

• M. F. Husain wanted to break the age-

old tradition of the Bengal school of art.
• They knew that in order to take Indian
art to the world stage, they had to
encourage artists to embrace
modernism.
• Husain saw the partition of 1947 as an
opportunity to start a movement as
many innocent lives were lost during
the partition of Indian and Pakistan.
Claiming that a ‘new India’ was born
out of the partition, Husain and his
friends urged their fellow artists to
embrace new ideas and hence, The
Progressive Artists' Group, which they the painting of five horses
formed in 1947, became a force to
reckon with.
• Soon, the movement became a turning
point in the history of Indian art.
PHILOSOPHY: Bringing Modernism to Indian Art
• A turning point in his career was when he visited Delhi to research
ancient Mathura sculpture and classic Indian miniature paintings. This led
him to assimilate fundamentally Indian subjects with a westernized
technique.
• Hussain’s art involved an altered Cubist style, and incorporated primordial
avenues of Indian mythology and culture.
• He frequently drew inspiration from epics such as :
Mahabharata and Ramayana, and characterised gods and goddesses in
modernist style. One of his most acclaimed works is The Battle of Ganga
and Jamuna. This enormous canvas personifies the two holy Indian rivers
and underlines the toll of war.
• The contemporary take on Hindu legends in his collective works
didn’t resonate well with a section of the conservative Indian folk
who chastised his art, and succeeded in banishing the ‘barefoot
painter’ to Qatar, his adoptive country.
• His first motion picture, Through the Eyes of a Painter won a Golden
Bear at the Berlin Film Festival of 1967. The movie is essentially a
collection of day-to-day scenes from rural Rajasthan, shot from a
surrealist perspective and set to traditional Hindustani music.
• Evidently, he preserved as sacrosanct an Indian element despite
painting in a non-traditionalist style and brought his India to the
world.
Battle of Ganga and Jamuna
• This oil on canvas from the Mahabharata series is perhaps on of Husain’s most prolific paintings.
• The blend of dark and bright colours in the large diptych which portrayed the conflict between
the right and wrong is mesmerizing. Completed in 1971, the painting fetched 6.5 crores at
Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale in 2008.
• This enormous canvas personifies the two holy Indian rivers and underlines the toll of war
The Sixth Seal
• Painted in Husain’s cubist modern style . The Sixth Seal illustrates ancient Indian
miniatures, sculptures, dance and folk art in 6 vignettes.
• One of the last of his paintings to be auctioned during his life, the piece was sold
at a Sotheby’s auction in May 2011 for approximately 3.7 crores.
 MAHABHARATA,1990, oil on canvas

Traditional Indian Festivals, 2008-2011. Language of Stone, 2008-2011

CAREER AND CONTROVERSIES
• Though Husain enjoyed fame and respect during the initial
phase of his career, a large portion of his painting career was
mired in controversies. More often than not, various Hindu
nationalist groups targeted him for hurting religious
sentiments.
• In 1996, a Hindi monthly magazine named ‘Vichar Mimansa’
published some of his controversial paintings that were
created in the 70s.
• The paintings that depicted nude Hindu goddesses earned
the wrath of many Hindus and Hindu organizations and
subsequently eight criminal complaints were lodged against
Husain.
• In 2006, he was charged again for hurting the sentiments of
people for coming up with a nude portrait of Bharatmata
(Mother India). The painting was forced to be withdrawn from
various auctions and an apology from Husain was
demanded.
• However, the painting was later sold at an auction for Rs 80
lakh. Eventually, Husain started receiving death threats from
various powerful organizations and he was left with no other
choice but to leave India. Bharatmatha (mother India
CONTROVERSIES
• The first attack on Husain took place in 1996,
triggered by paintings of Saraswati, the Hindu
goddess of knowledge; goddess Durga
copulating with a tiger and goddess Lakshmi
perched naked on the elephant head of lord
Ganesha. Saraswati
• In the nude, Saraswati, is identifiable through
her attributes that cite elements of traditional
iconography – the lotus, the veena and the
peacock. Though she appears faceless, she is
not nameless, as the artist inscribed her name in
Devanagari at the bottom of the drawing.
• Similarly, each of Durga & Laxmi have been
provided her lakshanas, not incorrect but
incidental attributes that fix her with a
simulacrum iconicity.
Lakshmi Durga
Husain's feminine India
• 'My subject is woman', Husain once stated, and indeed from the very start of his career at the Progressive group, women
of all sorts- anonymous and famous like Mother Teresa, Indira Gandhi; rural and urban, mortal and divine have been his
subject.
• There is a degree of Idolisation in his approach to the female body, and like all idols it has an aura. Even his nudes have
been rarely erotic.

Woman With Plantains female figue, 1950 female figue, 1979

• In his life, Husain had done many series and
one of these was Mother Teresa.
• The venerated figure of Mother Teresa first
appeared in the art of Maqbool Fida Husain in
1980.
• Since then the numerous canvases dedicated
to the subject of Mother Teresa stand as
testimony to the profound impact the saint
had on the artist’s life and work
• . While often depicted as a faceless entity,
these paintings explore notions not only of
the Mother Teresa herself, but of
motherhood in general, from the biblical
Virgin Mary to Husain’s own mother who died
when he was very young.
Of Gods, Goddesses & Epics
• From the late 1960s, Husain began to name all
nude, semi-nude female figures, as apsaras and
goddesses.
• Husain's choice suits the gods admirably. He
perfectly co-relates the mythological and the
performative, especially as rendered by a goddess.
• His oeuvre has so many Indian gods and goddesses
that it should weary more than offend the viewer.
• Husain did the Ramayana cycle in 1968 and
painted it on-off for the next eight years. These
cycle of paintings hoped to perform the task that
folk and popular performances do in each region,
of retelling the Ramayana and providing that very
message which inducted Husain into epics.
• The Mahabharata was painted in 1971 for the
Sao Paulo Art Biennale.
• In 1990, Husain again returned to the
Mahabharata.
• His voluminous and elaborate work on these
two 'national' epics of India, suggests that
some form of civilisational pedagogy was
certainly part of his project. He deployed the
puranic pantheon and the great epics,
appropriating their undepleted iconography
and their abundance of figures/images.
MAHABHARATA,1990, oil on canvas
• Husain was known to be anxious
and impatient as an artist and
had his bouts of creating a
variety of work during the
various phases of his life.
• Husain was popularly known for
his ‘Equestrian’ phase where the
artist painted pictures of only
horses for a long time.
AWARDS
M. F. Husain was honoured with many prestigious awards through the course of his
controversial yet impressive career. Some of the most important ones are mentioned below:

• Padma Shri – In the year 1966, the government of India honored him with the country’s
fourth highest civilian award.
• Padma Bhushan – In 1973, he was awarded with India’s third highest civilian award.
• Padma Vibhushan – In 1991, M. F. Husain won the country’s second highest civilian award
for his contribution towards Indian art.
• Raja Ravi Varma Award – In the year 2007, the government of Kerala honored him with the
state’s highest award in the field of art. However, the government’s decision was
questioned by various organizations and it eventually led to a major controversy.
RECOGNITION
• The Government of India appointed
Husain to a term in the Rajya Sabha, in
recognition of his contribution to art.
• The Jordanian Royal Islamic Strategic
Studies Centre released a list of 500 most
influential Muslims in the world and Husain
was a part of it.
• Many of the paintings are widely
appreciated in Europe and the USA, and
his artworks are displayed in several The horses of sun
museums throughout the world.
REFERENCE
• https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-art/painters/m-f-hussain.html
• https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/mf-hussain-bringing-modernism-to-indian-art/
• http://www.artnet.com/artists/maqbool-fida-husain/
• https://www.saffronart.com/artists/m-f-husain
• https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/read/the-private-life-of-a-peoples-
painter/article9993637.ece
Cubism
• Cubism was the most important movement of the 20th
century and marked the birth of abstract art. Invented
and pursued by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in
Paris between 1907 and 1914 and inspired by the
simplified landscapes of Paul Cézanne, Cubism took the
revolutionary step of rejecting the 500-year-old idea that
a painting was like a window, thus ruled by perspective.
Instead, Picasso and Braque created more conceptual,
subjective paintings that sought to represent the
underlying structure of existence. The best-known Cubist
works look like shattered glass in dim browns and
yellows, and are composed of various sharp planes that
combine to form people or objects. Cubism took its name
from an insult delivered by the critic Louis Vauxcelles,
who commented that one of Braque’s paintings looked as
if it were “full of little cubes.” After 1910, Picasso and
Braque’s Cubism was quickly adopted by many other
artists in Paris and beyond and ended up being the
primary influence on most or all abstract art before the
outbreak of World War II.