MF Husain (Maqbool Fida )
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Husain, Maqbool Fida
A meeting with a maestro
Art Modern Indian art Maqbool Fida Husain M.F. Husain
By Ali Adil Khan
If the great Mughal Emperor Akbar saw the collection of 51 large canvases created by Maqbool Fida Husain for the Mughal-i-Azam Museum in London, in all likelihood he would have bestowed the title of ‘Musavir-e-Azam’ on him.
I was fortunate to get the opportunity to preview these new works and meet one of the greatest artists of our time. Maqbool Fida Husain popularly known as M.F. Husain, who has just turned 92, was commissioned by Akbar Asif, son of K. Asif (director of the Indian epic film Mughal-i-Azam) to produce new works for the Mughal-i-Azam Museum which will be housed in his Park Lane penthouse.
As I arrived at the penthouse where Husain has set up his studio, I was greeted by Anjum Siddiqui an emerging artist, who was staying with Husain in transit to Delhi. She walked me to Husain’s studio, passing large finished and unfinished canvases. I was thrilled at the thought of meeting the maestro and seeing his studio for the first time.
Upon entering, I saw large paintings lined up all along the walls, and a few people sitting on comfortable leather sofa chairs. In the centre of the room was a large (10x10 feet) flexi-glass Italian coffee table scattered with books, exhibition brochures, and business cards. On a closer look, I noticed that the table had been painted and signed by Husain from underneath. I also noticed a white mattress and comforter placed on the floor next to the table where he probably rests. There were also two large easels, a step table with paint cans on it, and several paint brushes of various sizes.
However, Husain was not present in the studio. I was told that he was resting and had expressed an interest to paint that day provided there was the right audience and music. My friend Kamran Anwar, an investment banker and collector, who was accompanying me, offered to play a CD from a Qawwali album ‘Rung’ compiled by him, which he had brought to present to Husain. As the sound of Manzoor Niazi and party singing Meray banay ki baat na poocho, mera bana hariyala hai played, M. F. Husain made an entry into the studio. Everyone in the room rose to their feet. Tall and slim, dressed in a black kurta pajama with a white apron, he looked like he was in the mood to paint.
Beaming with energy, Husain commands great respect and adoration. As I greeted him he smiled and asked me to come and sit next to him. Enjoying the Qawwali, Husain gently started to clap. His persona was calm and quiet, gentle and composed. One feels very peaceful and relaxed in his company, despite his towering personality.
Later, he took me to preview his new works. About 30-35 paintings were complete, framed and ready for display; 5-10 seemed to be unfinished, and another 5-6 were blank canvases. All of these were the same size, roughly 8 ft x 5 ft. Some were painted in landscape and some in portrait. They were all creations of scenes from the film Mughal-i-Azam, as seen through the eyes of the maestro. Husain told me that this commission and body of work meant a lot to him as he had worked on the sets for the Mughal-i-Azam movie some 45 years ago.
The works were magnificent, characteristic of Husain’s style, executed in perfect light, form and colour. His masterly touch is evident from dexterous brush strokes and the use of vibrant and contrasting colours such as gold, silver, red, orange, blue and green. The series starts with a compelling painting of the map of Hindustan with Urdu writing “Main Hindustan hoon, Himalaya meri godh hai…….aur is ki tariqi main aik shaqs jis ka nam Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar thaa…..”
“Every painting I am creating is my interpretation of the film and of history. The film had some great lines; hence many of the paintings have Urdu writings on them. These truly memorable lines are what the film is remembered for, and my art is a reflection of the film’s greatness,” he explained.
These paintings are also a tribute to the great Mughal King Akbar. “Beyond the film, Akbar was the most secular Mughal King ever, and in today’s time it is important to remember that. From his marriage to Jodhabai, the Rajput princess, to his laws and governance, he established greatness and secularity you seldom see, even in today’s modern times. My paintings reflect that,” he added.
Undoubtedly, the most precious thing for Husain is time — and he wants to make the best of it. He enjoys eating at the best restaurants, buying top quality clothes, and getting the best paints and hand made Italian frames for his works. The frames alone for the 51 paintings (the late K. Asif passed away at the age of 51) cost in excess of one hundred thousand pounds.
Wherever he goes he stands out in the crowd and gets stormed by his admirers for autographs. He signs his name very stylistically in English and Urdu and dates it as 007. He also very generously makes a small drawing of a horse (Duldul) or an elephant (Ganesh) for his admirers.
Mughal-i-Azam Museum is set to open before the end of this year, as soon as the 51 paintings are complete and hung with proper lighting. As for his next venture he informed that he will be making 99 paintings on Arab history in Qatar. These paintings will represent all religions, culture and people of the region.
At 92, Husain has amazing energy, drive and creativity. He speaks very little, probably conserving his energy for his art, but when he does speak, he is humorous, opinionated and full of ideas.
Since Husain cannot return to India due to the preposterous law suits filed against him — India’s loss is others gain. Artists of Husain’s calibre are born once in a few centuries. One of Allama Iqbal’s famous couplets aptly describes this great maestro “Hazaron saal nargis apni benoori pe roti hai — Bari musquil se hota hai chaman men deedawar paida.” (A thousand years Narcissus cries over its lacking / With difficulty is born one to behold)
Contribution
India Today, June 11, 2011
"His art was always made in an open studio, watched by thousands" M F Husain's death in exile is a tragic loss to India: Jitish Kallat
Jitish Kallat , The writer is an Indian artist who works in varied media
As told to Olina Banerji
The art scene that we have inherited is primarily because of the space M.F. Husain has carved for art for three decades prior to when my generation started exhibiting its work. He was responsible for uploading in the public consciousness the figure of the artist in post-Independence India. His death is a tragic loss; one thinks about the fact that he made art practically everyday and everywhere he went. It makes me think that were he healthy and alive today he would probably be holding a brush at this time. Equally one feels a deep sadness and anger when one thinks of the fact that he had to pass away in a foreign land and that his last years were shaped by the state's indifference in the face of many death threats he received from fundamentalist factions.
He was a man who was awarded a Padma Shri, a Padma Bhushan and a Padma Vibushan and yet in his last years the Indian state chose to honour him by exiling him; with his passing away we can't reverse the circumstances but there is much to introspect here. What does the last years of Husain's living in exile and his giving up the Indian citizenship mean for the nation and its position vis-a-vis culture? One also thinks about how rooted Husain's work was within the national context and how that umbilical cord was forcibly snapped. Yet Husain never allowed the tragedy to hold him back. He handled it with exemplary equanimity and an insightful sense of humsour. When he took up another nationality it almost seemed like he had simply returned the ball the Indian state had served him. His resolve to secure all his energy to carry on making art and not let these awful incidents overpower him is a lesson for all creative people.
His was a visual language that embraced the formal possibilities of European modernism and morphed it with the texture and essence of an emergent India immediately after Independence. Other artists of his generation shared some of these preoccupations but his art was always practised performatively, always involving an audience of thousands. It was made in an open studio, to be watched by the entire nation and the world. Now this is not how art is made normally and most artists would relish a certain solitude, to secure one's reflexivity, but most yardsticks of evaluating artistic practice seem inadequate to compute Husain's creative aspirations. He needs to be looked at as a legendary cultural figure rather than as a visual artist of genius.
Today anyone related to the arts anywhere, will feel a deep sense of loss. Two years ago, when my wife and I were checking out of a hotel in Mayfair, London, we bumped into a common friend Kalpana Shah of Tao Art Gallery. She told us Husain was also staying in the same hotel. As always his energy was infectious when he told us that he had been staying there for a while and had turned his suite into his studio for the rest of the summer. The ease with which he had transformed the space into a lush creative patch made us rethink what we do every day in our working lives. He did not appear like a person in exile. Here was a man who had taken full ownership of the place and time that he inhabited; a man who had learned how to fully seize the moment.
Prices fetched by Husain’s paintings
2020: Rs 13.4 crore for Battle of Ganga and Jamuna: Mahabharata 12’
NiMo’s Husain sets world record, March 6, 2020: The Times of India
From: NiMo’s Husain sets world record, March 6, 2020: The Times of India
Sale Of Fugitive’s Assets Raises ₹53.45Cr For ED
Jewellery tycoon Nirav Modi might be disgraced but the taint doesn’t seem to extend his art. In a two-day auction, collectors vied to snap up his seized assets which included a record-breaking M F Husain painting, Hermes handbags, a Rolls Royce Ghost and diamond-studded watches.
The Husain painting titled ‘Battle of Ganga and Jamuna: Mahabharata 12’ was the centerpiece of the live auction conducted by Saffronart on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday. And it certainly lived up to its top billing, selling for Rs 13.4 crore and creating a new auction record for the artist. Another painting by Amrita Sher-Gil sold for even higher at Rs 15.6 crore. The live auction was preceded by an online auction. Both were described by Saffronart as “white glove sales”. In auction lingo, this means that all the items were sold. Not just sold, the two auctions raised a total of Rs 53.45 crore ($7.65 million) for the ED, crossing the pre-auction estimate of Rs 41 crore.
The diamantaire’s flashy lifestyle was evident in the objects on the block. Among the luxury collectibles was Modi’s Rolls-Royce Ghost which sold for Rs 1.68 crore. Saffronart CEO Dinesh Vazirani said “The frenzied bidding on watches, handbags and cars – most of which sold in multiples of their estimates – underscores the thriving market for luxury collectibles,”. TNN
2025 : Gram Yatra
Neelam Raaj, March 21, 2025: The Times of India
Like his signature horses, India’s most famous painter M F Husain galloped into the Rs 100-crore league Thursday, setting a new benchmark for Indian art.
As the hammer came down on the mind-boggling sum of $13.75 million (Rs 118 crore), applause filled the Christie’s saleroom in New Yo rk. Husain’s Gram Yatra, which shows 13 vignettes of rural life, is now the most expensive Indian artwork ever sold at auction. This price is almost double the previous record of Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Story Teller, which sold for Rs 61.8 crore at a Saffronart auction in Sept 2023. One reason for this big price bump at Christie’s was spirited bidding from two buyers, with sources saying the prize was bagged by Kiran Nadar who runs the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (she declined comment when contacted by TOI). The other bidder is believed to be US-based Shankh Mitra, CEO of Welltower, a real estate investment trust. It’s a reflection of the growing strength of Indian art market post-Covid, says Saffronart founder Dinesh Vazirani. “When an iconic work like this comes up, buyers are willing to pay any price. Just three days ago, nine world records for Indian artists were broken at Sotheby’s,” he says.
Ashish Anand, CEO of DAG, which i s celebrating Husain’s legacy with a retrospective in its Mumbai space, says this i s a huge moment for both Husain and Indian art. “It’s not only double that of the previous record but more than a 400% jump from Husain’s previous record of $3.1m (Rs 27 cr) set last year,” says Anand, who is planning a Husain showing at the Dubai art fair.
Details
Neelam Raaj, March 24, 2025: The Times of India
The record price fetched by M F Husain Gram Yatra even surprised Christie’s, where the painting was being auctioned. “Our estimate was $2.5-3.5 million which we thought was fair, but this was a phenomenal work,” says Nishad Avari, head of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art at Christie’s. The only comparable work is Husain’s Zameen, which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi,” Avari adds. Husain, often known as India’s barefoot Picasso, started his career as a hoarding painter, and like the Bollywood posters he painted, his story was quite filmy. It didn’t have such a happy ending though as death threats and multiple lawsuits forced the artist into exile. “This is a homecoming of sorts for Husain,” says Yashodhara Dalmia, art historian and curator. A founding mem- ber of the Progressive Artists Group, Husain and his contemporaries gave Indian art a new modernist language post-Independence. “Gram Yatra shows his modernist vocabulary and influences but is yet completely rooted in India. He spotlighted the ordinary Indian in the painting. You can see a farmer tilling the soil, a woman using a chakki to mill wheat and a couple strolling by.” Avari says his favourite panel is the farmer. “The farmer is shown holding up the land — physically and metaphorically.” By choosing to highlight the farmer, Avari explains, the artist “is forcing his viewers to focus on the foundational importance of rural India in the wake of the new nation, even as the country underwent urbanisation.” The painting, says Anand, realises Gandhi’s vision. “Gandhi said that India’s soul lives in its villages and Husain captures that soul on canvas. His name is synonymous with Indian art.” But despite this fame, Anand admits that Husain’s work has been relatively underpriced till now. “When you compared the prices to his contemporaries, they were always lower, but this sale is going to change that.” Perhaps it will encourage many Indians, who have been holding on to sketches and paintings that the flamboyant and ever-generous Husain saab gifted to them, to bring out their bounty.
Delhi to Oslo: How painting came to light
Wondering how such a landmark Husain painting stayed hidden from public eye? Christie’s Nishad Avari says the painting was hanging in an Oslo hospital till they found out about it 12 years ago. It had been bought by a Norwegian doctor, Leon Volodarsky, who was in Delhi to establish a thoracic surgery centre for WHO. In an article he wrote, Husain’s contemporary Krishen Khanna narrated the story of how the doctor spotted the scroll which was painted in 1954. After much suspense, the doctor offered Husain a princely sum of Rs 1,000 for the painting. That, says Avari, was a record price for a work of Indian art then. After Dr Volodarsky’s death, it was bequeathed to the hospital. Proceeds from the sale will go to establish a centre for doctors. TNN
The story of Gram Yatra ‘'
Vandana Kalra, March 24, 2025: The Indian Express
A hitherto largely unknown Husain was sold for $13.8 million (more than Rs 118 crore) at a Christie’s auction in New York on March 19, becoming the most expensive Indian artwork to be auctioned, and the first to cross the Rs 100-crore mark.
‘Untitled (Gram Yatra)’, a monumental oil-on-canvas measuring nearly 14 feet x 3 feet, comprises 13 vignettes that appear as a celebration of rural life in India.
It had remained in the collection of Oslo University Hospital, Oslo for several decades, largely away from the public eye. How did the painting travel to Norway; what is the story of its ‘rediscovery’ and sale?
Story of the painting
Husain painted the work in 1954, and displayed it that same year at an exhibition titled ‘M F Husain and Krishen Khanna’ at the All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society (AIFACS) in Delhi.
In the city at the time was Leon Elias Volodarsky (1894-1962), a Ukrainian-born surgeon based in Norway. Dr Volodarsky was the head of a World Health Organisation (WHO) team that was helping to establish a thoracic surgery training centre in the capital of the newly independent nation.
An avid art collector, Volodarsky would often visit museums and art galleries in India. He reportedly bought the painting from Husain for his home in Oslo.
In 1964, Dr Volodarsky’s estate donated the painting to the collection of Oslo University Hospital, where it was exhibited in a private corridor, mostly hidden from public view.
Some 13 years ago, the existence of the painting was brought to the attention of Nishad Avari, Head of the Department, Indian Art, at Christie’s.
Avari told The Indian Express that this was the most significant Indian artwork that he had brought to auction. “The last few years have seen very sustained growth patterns for prices of Indian art. As stronger works come out in the market, there is room for this trend to expand further,” he said.
The painting garnered almost four times its high estimate of $3.5 million. Prior to last week’s sale, the most expensive work of Indian art to be sold at an auction was Amrita Sher-Gil’s 1937 ‘The Story Teller’ that fetched $7.4 million (Rs 61.8 crore) at a Saffronart auction in India in 2023.
The work, its significance
The canvas belongs to a critical period for Indian art and in the career of M F Husain.
The first decade after Independence was a time of intense artistic development in the country. Young Indian artists were striving to establish a modern artistic idiom that was distinct from both revivalist nationalism and colonial academic realism. The Progressive Artists’ Group, which led the way in the creation of an Indian avant garde, was established in Mumbai in 1947. Husain (1915-2011) was a founding member, along with S H Raza (1922-2016), F N Souza (1924-2002), K H Ara (1914-85), H A Gade (1917-2001), and the sculptor S K Bakre (1920-2007).
Through the 1950s, Husain produced several of his seminal works, including the iconic ‘Zameen’ (1954-55), which is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.
His modernism was deeply rooted in India, and is in evidence in the 1954 work sold last week. Its 13 vignettes include varied scenes from village life – a man and a woman riding a bullock cart, a woman dancing with a drummer, another woman pounding wheat, etc.
An open field rendered with expressive brushstrokes was ostensibly inspired by Husain’s visit to China in 1952, where he was impressed by the calligraphic strokes; another landscape shows a more fragmented cubist approach.
Evolution of Husain’s art
The young Husain used art as a means to express himself, and would often ride his cycle into the countryside around Indore to paint landscapes.
On one such trip, he met the renowned painter N S Bendre, who recognised his talent and suggested to his father that he should be given formal training in art. During his brief academic stint at the Lalit Kala Sansthan in Indore, Husain realised he could compete with those ahead of him in art college.
In the 1930s, Husain arrived in Mumbai, and famously spent his initial years in the city making a living as a cinema-hoarding painter who was paid four or six annas (about 25-36 paise) per square foot. He later joined a furniture shop called Fantasy, where he designed nursery furniture and wooden toys for children, and received a steady income of Rs 25 per month.
Husain was reportedly offered admission to Mumbai’s J J School of Art in the mid-1930s, but was unable to join the famed institution. He sold his work directly to collectors for modest sums, and held his first major public show in 1947, when he displayed his ‘Sunehra Sansar’ at the annual exhibition of the Bombay Art Society.
In subsequent decades, Husain would become one of the best known faces of Indian art, taking his work all over India and to several countries abroad.
He merged modernity and tradition, drawing inspiration from diverse sources from cubism to temple sculptures to miniatures. He used bold colours and thick brush strokes, and his recurring subjects included horses, lamps, deities, and epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana.
Husain’s subjects and mediums changed constantly, and he went from small paper works to gigantic murals, printmaking, photography and later, even filmmaking.
While his work received wide acclaim, it also provoked anger among some who saw his art as insulting to Hindu deities and the motherland. Husain received multiple death threats, and hundreds of cases were registered against him. He finally left India on self-imposed exile in 2006, and accepted Qatari citizenship in 2010. While still in exile, he passed away in London in 2011.
