Always a newsmaker: The enigma of M.F. Husain
14 years after his death, Husain still makes news, a sign that his art, often featuring farmers and women, moved people
Earlier this month, M.F. Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra) created a record at Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale in New York. Auctioned at about ₹118 crore and reportedly purchased by art collector Kiran Nadar, this 1954 work is now the most expensive work of modern Indian art ever sold in a public auction. Spanning 13 vignettes, the painting is emblematic of the various influences on the artist, a coming together of the calligraphic brushstrokes of Chinese art and the Cubist style of Europe with Husain’s deep connection with indigenous Indian art.
The late artist has made news twice already this year for vastly different reasons. Recently, a lawyer filed a complaint in a Delhi court as she considered two of the late artist’s paintings “offensive". They had been exhibited at DAG in Delhi as part of the show, Husain: The Timeless Modernist in December. The court, however, refused to order an FIR against the gallery.
Even 14 years after his death in London following a self-imposed exile, the artist continues to evoke drastic responses— his works are either vilified by funda mentalist groups and individuals or celebrated by art scholars, collectors and enthusiasts. What is it that makes Husain a talking point, more than, perhaps, any other artist of his generation? According to Kishore Singh, senior vice-president, DAG, it is people who are closest to the grass roots who are celebrated the most. “They remain in the news because they are a part of the consciousness—be it politicians, writers or those in cinema. Some people become integral to the rhythms of the country and it is difficult to move past them because their relevance remains strong," he says. “It is as true of Husain as of figures from other fields."
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Every time he or his landmark works make news, it is a reminder of Husain’s ability to touch upon specific aspects of the plurality of India, and the lifetime of work he put into representing the artisans, farmers, performers and women who were the building blocks of a newly independent nation. Husain’s prolific creativity was inspired, in part, by Indian myths and legends, the tradition of sculp ture and miniature paintings, and more. “But these were never religious paint ings, something his far-right critics failed to understand when they went looking for ways to lynch his reputation," wrote Singh recently in The Indian Express.
According to Nishad Avari, head of department, Indian Art, Christie’s, Untitled (Gram Yatra) came at a formative time in the history of India and the development of modern Indian art, which Husain influenced deeply. “In this piece you can see Husain working out a visual vocabulary for describing the new nation of India in which he draws from several local and international artistic traditions to create a new and unique idiom for himself," Avari explains in an email interview.
The Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art team first learned of the painting over a decade ago when they received photos of it hanging at the Oslo University Hospital. It had been brought in 1954 by Norway-based Dr Leon Elias Volodarsky during his stint in New Delhi. His family later bequeathed the painting to the Oslo University Hospital. “Our jaws dropped when we saw it, and we knew we had to drop everything and go to see it in person. The reemergence of Gram Yatra—it hung, half forgotten, in a hos pital corridor in Oslo for years— presents a rare opportunity for scholars, institutions and collectors to engage with a masterpiece that has long been distant from the public spotlight," states Avari. The work adds another dimension to the understanding of Husain’s early career. “It highlights his commitment to defining what it meant to be a modern Indian artist — and, in turn, what modern Indian art meant to a nation that had only gained independence seven years earlier," he adds.
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So, how does one view this painting in context of some of the other seminal works that Husain did in the same period? Singh cites the example of Zameen, considered a masterpiece, and a work that is similar in composition and size to Untitled Gram Yatra. It ended up winning the first ever Lalit Kala Gold Medal. “It is right now a part of the collection at the National Gallery of Modern Art, and will never be released from the institution. Gram Yatra is the closest comparable to this most iconic painting. And hence collectors, with a certain vision, bid for it. People recognised this as a work that comes your way once in a lifetime," he adds.
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