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Showing posts with label Mf husain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mf husain. Show all posts

Sunday, February 5, 2012

tribute to MF Husain

A man wearing a free Ai Weiwei t- shirt. Image courtesy - catherinehyland.blogspot.com

Art&Deal EDITORIAL-A TRIbuTE TO HusAIn

by Rahul Bhattacharya on Saturday, 11 June 2011 at 20:39


M F Husain is the first Indian contemporary artist (who is )possibly going to be awarded the Bharat Ratna (posthumously). He died in a London hospital and his new Qatari citizenship has thrown open a Pandora’s Box between the relationship between Indian art and Indian society. On surface the debate is about whether Husain is an Indian artist or Qatari artist of Indian origin. Undoubtedly one of the greatest modernist painters to have emerged from India and a man of unparalleled genius, Husain’s style is avant-garde in the art, life and manner of the early 20th century French modernists. In spite of what everybody said and did, possibly Husain’s greatest victory in his exile era was the Supreme Court’s judgment and the continuous increase of both cultural and financial value of his works and his continuing domination of the Indian art market. At a time when contemporary Indian art has failed to evoke deep political responses Husain stands out as an exception. He did almost everything you could expect an artist to do, create overseas market for Indian contemporary art, make films, provoke vandalism of art institutions, develop uniquely original and bold formal language, be the first Indian artist who became a crorepati, and to die in exile. Understandably his impact on contemporary Indian art has been tremendous.

Whatever may be his acts he acted out of faith and conviction. However a lot of his audience was unforgiving with a largely hindu decry about him painting Indian God and Goddesses nude. Thus starts the two parallel stories about M F Husain. First, the story of a muslim man who took Indian secularism to heart and took India’s (largely hindu) history as his own history and as a true modernist appropriated it, used it , played with it and celebrated it. The hue and cry that came up with Shiv Sena and Vishwa Hindu Parishad vandalising his works and attacking his exhibitions appalled him. It was tragic for Husain to suddenly know that he was not an Indian but a muslim who had no right over “Indian culture” and it Gods. This became tragic when in the post 90’s era the communal forces and the hindu right wing began to get prominent in the country along with
Islamic terrorism and took away the basic value systems that was essential for Husain’s survival, both as an artist and as a human being. The systematic moral and political decline of the Congress party definitely added to his political isolation.

Husain was delighted with a line of Supreme Court judg- ment. It noted that art is dangerous. It is the business of art to be dangerous. Art without danger is not art.   Quoted from www.ibnlive.in.com/blogs/shivvisvanathan


Being ideologically rooted in modernist avant-garde Husain’s explanations defending his art were inadequate in the 90’s post-colonial India. He was a playful character often subversive and ironic. But the people who defended him ended up sounding boring and predictable. And (as usual) the secular intelligentsia’s lost their battle. In this particular case the inability to work within
the nuances of ‘naked’ and ‘nude’ proved crucial in the loss of cultural space in the country. Maybe Husain’s biggest folly was the painting of Indira Gandhi as Mother India ( after the declaration of emergency). However he was not the only one fascinated and captivated by her charisma at that time. The second story is of course the story we all grew up with. The story of a young signboard painter in Bombay who through his energy, the boldness of his line, a compulsive
urge to document the socio politics around him and the brightness of his colors captured the imagination of art lovers across India, Pakistan and later almost all countries. Our (in)ability as a culture to deal with Husain’s art and his modernism betrays how as a society contemporary art often pretends to exist outside the ambit of culture.


In contrast, about 10 days ago during the 22nd anniversary gathering of the Tiananmen Square massacre held in Hong Kong 1 lakh people gathered. Outside the vigil people sold t-shirts bearing the face of Ai Weiwei who they consider to be the most high profile cultural-political voice of dissent in China. Such an artist-society relationship is unimaginable in India yet. Most debates around art and society have been centered on either art and censorship or public art. It is as if normal painting, sculpture, installation are not considered commodity unless they are declared public art or they evoke censorship. This vacuum in understanding has led to grotesque apathy of public funded art institutions and creation of a empty space where it is easy for right wing voices to come in to exile a Husain or to bring down Chandra Mohan’s painting from the Faculty of Arts display.

There are many aspects to this vacuum/divide. The dominance of English language while framing art, the focus of exhibitions shifting from viewers to collectors, the packaging of art primarily as a commodity of investment, all these and much more. In the meantime let us just observe a minute of silence an remember the greatness of M F Husain.