100th B'Day Of Hussain- A Contest for you

I'm an ardent fan of Pablo Picasso, who invented the famous art form known as " Cubism."I too am an art enthusiast, In this background I agree with the opinion of the celebrities in the field. Maqbool Fida Hussain hailed as the " Picasso Of India."Irrespective of his nationality and some of the styles he adopted to air his views, high standards of creativity, though he was subjected to severe criticism for depicting Hindu Gods naked, M, F Hussain deserves all the honors bestowed on him.

M.F. Hussain was a great painter, artist and also made some movies including Gaja Gamini starring Madhuri Dixit.  He is  internationally acknowleged as a great painter. I know only one another Indian painter, namely Amrita Shergill.  When you think of painting, you cannot help M.F. Hussain occupying your mind.  He was not only a painter of international repute but also a thorough gentleman.  It is very sad that certain organizations disliked and harassed him so much that he had to settle at Dubai where he breathed his last. 

Nowadays, I do not draw and paint due to migraine until and unless there is a necessity to help and guide my son for his projects. The moot point is though I was greatly involved in art, I don't have the capability to judge an artist like M. F. Hussain. Who am I? Just a novice in art. Firstly, I learnt to draw and paint from my elder sister who enjoyed doing so as hobby and later learnt some finer strokes in school but for me too it remained as a hobby and not a career. Standing at this position I feel that a painter who was honoured with Padma Vibhushan is worth praising. Mesmerised national and international art lovers through his finest strokes deserve to be respected and people like me should not even dare to criticise him.

M F Hussain was a gifted painter with a tremendous eye for beauty within his subjects. The bare footed painter rose to international fame in stages, starting as a film hoarding painter and ending as one of the world's greatest painters. His phenomenal output made him become a world citizen. He surely deserves all the honors that willingly or grudgingly came to him from his own countrymen. However towards the end of his life he was hounded out of India which is a black mark in our history of respecting great artists.

Most of us know all there is to know about M F Hussain , through the media and the net , so there is no point in my adding the same information again in a different format and words. I would like to add some of my own personal views about the painter who I had the opportunity of meeting once.

There is no doubt , that he was probably one of the most well- known Modern Indian Painters , also the founding member of Progressive Artistes Group of Bombay. MF Hussain with all that fame and popularity ,was a very humble and an endearing person to all those who came into contact with him. I happened to see him interact with the children at Bangalore , where a school at Koramangala ,close to his house had conducted an arts exhibition. He was the guest of honor and he came on time, sat with the children, making suggestions and interacting with them. He even showed them how to use the brush and the charcoal. Before departing he greeted all of us people gathered there with folded hands with a shy smile. At that time we were not to know that he would leave for the UK within a few months because of the controversy and the problems that arose with it ! 

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M.F.Husain was really not a trained artist and so he totally lacked the basic skills that an artist requires, which is strong drawing and composition. The truth, which most do not know, nor do they want to know, that he was systematically projected and promoted by some people who did not want the Indian art to prosper, the result of which was the Progressive art movement, or the more commonly known as the modern art. His fame and so-called excellence in painting is the result of extensive media portrayal. Compare his paintings with that of Raja Ravi Verma and see for yourself. The basic objective of art is to 'pick up mundane and present them beautifully and aesthetically' His art contains neither aesthetics, nor beauty.

One thing glaring jumps out from his paintings is his gross disrespect and abhorrence of Hindu religion, some thing which an artist SHOULD NEVER EVER DO. His paintings of Muslim ladies are very respectful while that of Hindu Goddesses are obscene. Why this differentiation?

Another important thing which you all might not know is that, many years ago, he started and spearheaded a petition of modern artists the purpose of which was to declare that Raja Ravi Verma was NOT an artist. He really fought tooth and nail to get that petition signed. and then years later. he had the audacity and shamelessness to accept the award from Kerala government which was named after Raja Ravi Verma himself. Speaks volumes of his so-called repute and integrity (or lack of) So in my opinion, He never was and never will deserve the honours bestowed upon him.

M. F. Hussain's aim was not just to paint., but to explore a "New Idiom" for Indian Art. It is believed that M.F. Hussain formed  Progressive Artists Group. On the contrary, The group was existing already. On the invitation of Francis Neton Souzah of Progressive Artist group, Hussain Joined the group. Zameen and Man is one of his paintings done in this period. He was influenced by ancient Madhura sculptures and Miniature paintings. This was a turning point for Hussain. He has assimilated and learned from both Western and Indian Art. A man with humble beginnings rising to Stardom is an achievement of a greater dimension.

He certainly deserves all the honors bestowed on him.

M F Hussain was an Indian and richly deserved the honors that were bestowed on him. His only error of judgement was that he thought he was painting in an India where the  minds of Indians were liberated. So some of his paintings of Hindu goddesses were not seen  thru a painter's eyes but thru communal spectacles. A weak government and lack of courage on part of so called liberals saw him being hounded out of India to Dubai where he breathed his last. That did not diminish the quality of his phenomenal output. He liked to paint horses just as the great cartoonist Laxman liked to draw crows.  In the community of painters he holds a very high reputation and richly deserves to be honored and remembered.

We see a lot of intolerance in the society not just in India , it has become a global phenomenon which has been growing more violent by the day. Many of the artistes and writers fail to understand the sensitive feelings of people who are extremely touchy about religion and their god. They take the term artistic freedom too far failing to realise that there is no total freedom when you live in a multi cultured society ,you need to respect the beliefs of other people . MF hussain should have realised this fact before painting Nude Hindu Goddesses because he was part of a community which was/is extremely intolerant when it came to religious issues. Hussain became victim of a hate campaign which I personally think was started as a measure to hit back after the Salman Rushdie episode. Fundamentalism has no logic and we see it happening even now with another great artiste A.R Rehman being hounded by the same ‘ Green ‘ brigade. The charged Hindu groups , who were extremely hurt by some of Hussain’s paintings attacked him verbally and later he had to flee the country after his house in Bangalore was attacked by miscreants. M F Hussain spent his last years in the house built in Bangalore which has now been converted into a heritage restaurant.

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An artist uses several ways to drive home his point. M. F. Hussain is no different. Please allow me to start with he meaning of Symbolism.This Symbolism is effectively used by both Artists and writers. An Artist uses different strokes, thick and thin, dots and several Hues and colors. All these symbols express the emotions in a living organism or a lifeless entity like a stone.

Now coming to the topic, we all know about his series of " Horses" painted by M. F. Hiussain which created waves all over the world. And these Horses fetched astronomical prices in the World famous ' Christies's" Art Auction House..

 Each of his Horse depicted the animal's force, vigor and vitality, Which Hussain depicted through his symbolic skills. Not only this, he sends a message through his paintings of Horses, Man too should possess these traits in order to deal with the UPs and Downs in life to be in the reckoning and shoot ahead.

There are several arguments in favor of an artist's freedom of expression, religious intolerance where Husain was especially concerned etc. etc. but what one needs to open eyes and see Husain's mindset behind each painting. When he painted Bharatmata, his own country for which he is supposed to be proud of, he painted her naked and in a vulgar manner, tearing and twisting apart the components of our national flag and using them on various parts of painting, thus violating the law. Where was his national pride then? Also, as far as professional ethics are concerned, he showed marked disrespect and dishonesty in them too. It has been PROVEN fact that he painted large canvases and then cut them down to pieces and sold them as individual and exclusive piece, thus duping his buyers as they lost authenticity and exclusivity. IT is a fact now that many gallery owners and personal collectors are now severely regretting buying those paintings as now no one wishes to touch them with a 10-foot pole. The prices that media cites now and then are much much exaggerated. So where he is concerned as a person and an artist, there is simply no honesty and integrity. Neither was he quite clear about his own ideas, he was a confused person. I am attaching a picture of Bharat mata for your reference, judge for yourself whether you want your country to be depicted in such a vulgar manner.

In the community of painters M F Hussain was at the very top. He painted as he saw the subject through his eyes, and that is what every painter dies. It is the viewers who interpret the painting as per their value system and biases and prejudices. I had an opportunity to see his "Durga" paintings during Emargency in mid 1975 at Jehangir Gallery in Mumbai, Only three paintings were on display. There was a large crowd gathered to see them. For a long time I did not hear anything negative about the paintings till some fringe elements accused the painter of painting Hindu goddess naked and his harassment started. For that matter in the  picture of Bharat mata above I do not see anything wrong or vulgar. It is a way of portraying a vision in color on canvas. But others may see hell of a lot. That Hussain was Muslim also went against him because towards end of his life the fundamentalist school of thought was gaining foothold and he was perhaps its first victim. This does not rob him of being a great painter.

Being a Muslim artiste  did not in any way hinder M F Hussain in his growth as an artiste of repute within India. In fact, along with all the accolades he received , he was also given a free 4000 sq ft plot by the Karnataka government  under the artistes quota ,in the upmarket Koramangala area where he built a palatial house , which has been now sold for a very high price to a hotelier, thereby making his children self sufficient !

The major problem with his paintings was the way he depicted Hindu Goddesses and people  – ‘Durga in a sexual union with a tiger’ , 'Goddess Lakshmi naked on Ganesha’s head', Naked Sita, Naked Draupadi, Naked Parvati , Naked Bhartmata , Naked Brahmin with a fully clothed Muslim King. Now , compare these with his other paintings - Fully clothed Mother Teresa, His daughter Fully clothed, His mother fully clothed, Muslim poets and Muslim ladies fully clothed. One wonders what exactly was he trying to prove ? did his artistic expression and imagination work overtime while depicting Hindu dieties or is that how he imagined them?

I have always wondered about these contradictions in him as an artiste and private individual who from all accounts was loved by his neighbors and everybody else he came into contact with but was so very insensitive when it came to his paintings !

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I don't know how many Indians are proud of M. F. Hussain but the point is how many Indians understand the various aspects of art. Most of the people are not that knowledgeable regarding art and so they judge the work only what they see through their open eyes. So, there is nothing wrong when a section of people protested the obscene projection of Hindu Goddesses. Can anyone of us tolerate any one of our family members be painted nude by any artist? No, we won't accept it then how can we accept our Goddess in such projection. That is asking for too much. So, in my opinion it was wrong. We know, India believes in freedom of speech but hate speech is an offence similarly art that leave a bad taste must be banned because it enhances the conflict of mind and heart. While saying all this against Hussain's particular pieces of art, I will not change my opinion about the honour conferred on him. A lack of sensitivity in some of his art pieces should not be the judging point of one's artistic skill. He deserves to be honoured because of his gross art work.  

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After M F Hussain fled from India, he spent his time in Qatar which was his adoptive country , where  his son lived and London . In fact, he was more at home in London because of the cultural atmosphere there. He breathed his last at the age of 95, on the 9^th of June , 2011 in London.

Coming to the question as to whether he deserves the honor bestowed on him, I am not sure. His art was Modern Progressive Contemporary which is actually a mish-mash although it does have beauty. I have seen the modern artistes gallery in London, Hamburg , Belgium and Florence. I personally feel that M F Hussain’s paintings do not come to the standard of those artistes although there are a couple of M F Hussain’s paintings displayed in Hamburg and London. His paintings may have fetched a good price from the Indian perspective but that is not a yardstick for measuring quality. I like a few of his paintings on India civilization series ,but certainly not the controversial nude ones since there is no beauty in any one of them.

On the whole I feel that he got much more than what he deserved as an artiste probably because he was liked by all and his paintings too became more famous and popular because of the many controversies surrounding them and not because they were in any way great !

Hussain had his own logic behind every painting but that does not have respectability among many people. People's sentiment cannot be ignored but the fact that his art has a touch of artistic brilliance cannot be ignored either. The government honoured him for his painting ability and I think it should not be challenged.

Thank You Everyone. CC 15 each to-

1- Kalyani Nandurkar

2- Usha Manohar 

3- Shampa Sadhya

4- vijay

5- rambabu

And CC 10 to Gulshan Sir for his only post.