Which modern artist is called the Picasso of India? Award-winning artist, film maker, and Member of Parliament, M.F. Husain is sometimes given this title.
Maqbool Fida Husain was born in Pandharpur, Maharashtra in 1915. His mother died when he was a year old. All his life, he missed having a mom. He felt her absence even when he was an old man. His father assigned him to be a tailor’s apprentice. But Husain wanted to study art and went to Mumbai to enrol himself in the JJ School of Arts.
After graduating, he painted posters for Bollywood movies. He also designed and painted toys to earn a living. In 1947, when India gained independence, the artist Francis Sousa Newton invited Husain to become one of the founders of the Progressive Artists Group. The young artists wanted to create modern Indian art for their newly formed country.
Visiting Europe for the first time in 1953, he was greatly influenced by the abstract art of Paul Klee and Picasso and began to paint in a Cubist style of his own. He painted large canvases spread out on the floor. His paint brush was three feet long!
Husain painted with amazing energy and created over 30,000 paintings during his lifetime. He woke up early in the morning and worked hard for three or four hours. He never wore shoes, because he felt they were bad for his knees. Some people complained about it but he didn’t care.
He was born a Muslim, but a large number of his paintings have subjects from the Hindu religion. He painted a series called Painting from the Nine Religions, which had subjects from all the major world religions. He also painted people from modern India that he admired, such as Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi. He loved horses and created a series of paintings with horses.
Honours and struggles
Husain was a successful painter and he also made a number of movies. His short film, “Through the Eyes of a Painter” won the Golden Bear short film award at the 1967 Berlin International Film Festival.
Husain won the Padma Shri and the Padma Vibhushan awards from the Indian Government for his outstanding work. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi appointed him to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament. He kept a sketchbook of the meetings for six years, which he later published.
Some groups did not like the way Husain painted gods and goddesses. They broke into his house and exhibitions and destroyed his paintings. They took him to court, and when the Government dismissed the charges, they threatened to kill him. Husain did not feel safe. He spent the last years of his life living in London and Qatar. The royal family of Qatar granted him citizenship. He gave up his Indian citizenship, though it hurt him very much to do so. He dreamed of coming home to Mumbai but died in London in 2011.
