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Press about M.F.Husain
New Delhi: Artist Maqbool Fida Husain, revered around the world for his masterstrokes on canvas, passed away in London Thursday morning. Popularly known as M.F. Husain, he spent the last years of his life in exile after being forced out of India, his birthplace, due to threats from Hindu fundamentalists. The artist left the country in February 2007 and moved between London, Dubai and Qatar. Divya Chauhan, Chairperson of the Amity School of Fine Arts, considered it unfortunate that he was not in India during the last few years of his life.
Unparalleled contribution "We will miss his unparalleled contribution to the field of art. Husain was one of those artists who brought Indian art to the global arena. It was due to him that people all over the world started acknowledging and respecting the value of our art," she said. Convinced that Husain will continue to be the timeless inspiration for art aficionados, Chauhan said, "His invaluable works defined a path for the youth and set a benchmark which will not be easy to cross over." Many young artists felt it was unfortunate to have lost the artist twice. Said fine arts student Karan Gupta, "We lost Husain twice. First when he left India for good and now that he has left a void forever."
Under attack Husain came under attack by right wing activists who took umbrage at some of his paintings and accused him of hurting sentiments of people with his portraits of Hindu deities. The rumblings began in the 1990s and escalated in 2006. Although he apologised and clarified on various occasions, it did not satisfy his detractors who hounded him and kept up vehement protests. Cases piled up against him in courts all over India. The final straw was the vandalising of his galleries and attacks on his home in Mumbai. Husain always maintained that the cases lodged against him infringed upon his basic right to express himself and said that he never wanted to hurt anyone's sentiments through art. Nudity Even though his friends pointed out the liberal tradition of Indian culture since ancient times where the depiction of nudity had found a place as decorative sculptures on the walls of Khajuraho and Konarak temples, there was no respite for the artist. Ram Rahman, photographer and cultural activist, termed the campaign against him purely political, led by people who had no knowledge of Indian traditions and culture. Defending the artist, he said, "Husain never caricatured Hindu dieties or figures of any other religions. He painted existing iconography in his own style. But just because Hindu fundamentalists reinterpreted his works does not make them blasphemous." |
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