Always a newsmaker: The enigma of M.F. Husain

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. 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.