Recently, the international art community lost one of its most coveted painters at the age of 95. Prominent Indian artist, M.F. Husain, passed away on June 9, 2011 due to complications related to a heart condition he had been battling with for nearly two months. Commonly referred to as the “Picasso of India”, he applied the modernist concepts and visuals of a Matisse or Cezanne to create wonderful masterpieces that revolve around portrayals of Indian life and society. His career sparked in the 1940s when he joined the Progressive Artist’s Group, a school that broke with traditional Indian subject matter, style and composition. His paintings are known to be vibrating with colors, lines and iconic imagery. Husain’s celebrated, and sometimes controversial work has made him one of the most sought-after contemporary Indian artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

M.F. Husain was born on September 17, 1915 in Pandharpur in Maharashtra, India. Before receiving any formal training at the J.J. School of Art in Mumbai beginning in 1935, he was a self-taught artist living on meager funds he received from his Bollywood movie poster paintings. He began to garner national and eventually international recognition beginning in the 1940s, becoming India’s most highly paid artist. His work first came into the public eye in 1947 when he showed paintings at the Bombay Art Society, his first exhibition. In 1952, Husain held his first solo exhibition in Zurich, where his work was viewed by an international community of artists, collectors, dealers and art-lovers at home and abroad. After establishing himself as a prolific and well-known painter, Husain transferred his artistic talents to the film industry. He developed his first film, “Through the Eyes of a Painter” in 1962, premiering it at the Berlin Film Festival where it won a Golden Bear, an award granted to the best film at the festival. Additionally, he created two more movies, entitled “Gaja Gamini” and “Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities”. Four years later, he was awarded the Padmashree, given to citizens to recognize their contribution to the arts and public life by the government of India.

Although his work was appreciated on an international level, he received much criticism and scorn for his works depicting nude Hindu deities. His work depicting Bharatmata (“Mother India”) as the body of a nude woman defined by the state and national borders of India, angered Hindu and religious fundamentalists; Husain received numerous threats of legal action and murder, causing him to go into exile in 2006. After he left India stating, “matters are so legally complicated that I have been advised not to return home”, Husain split his time between Dubai and London, as well as traveling to various international cities; he never returned to India despite strong desires to once again live in his native nation.

After living in Dubai, Husain spent a significant amount of time in New York City. He had a close relationship with Tamarind Art Gallery owners, Kent and Marguerite Charugundla, and exhibited numerous times at their gallery space in Midtown. Mr. Charugundla remembers him as “first and foremost a great painter, the ’Picasso of India’, a genius who took Indian contemporary art to new places, and spearheaded the progressive art movement of India”. Husain was present in April 2003 at the gallery’s inauguration; his largest piece, a 10-by-60 foot work entitled Lighting, was featured at the opening.

Known for his long white beard, shoeless feet and paintbrush-shaped cane, M.F. Husain was an instantly recognizable figure, known for his eccentric, yet iconic lifestyle and artwork. M.F. Husain’s legacy will live on, through his amazing and extraordinary works of art.