NEW DELHI: A museum dedicated to M. F. Husain will open in Qatar next month, the first such institution honoring the legacy of one of India’s most famous and influential modern artists.
Often called “the Picasso of India,” Husain — full name Maqbool Fida Husain — was born in Pandharpur in Maharashtra in 1915.
Self-taught as an artist, he began developing his skills by learning calligraphy at a madrasah in his early teens. He moved to Mumbai in the 1930s, surviving by painting cinema posters and honing his craft as the Bollywood industry grew.
In 1947, he formed the Progressive Artists’ Group with F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, K. H. Ara, H. A. Gade, and S. K. Bakre, who sought to give Indian art a new modern identity after independence from British colonial rule.
“They have all been the top stars of Indian modern art. All of them very consciously decided to create a new language for art in post-independence India, which is away from ancient art, which is away from the British school of art — a completely new language,” said Sahar Zaman, an art journalist who has documented Husain’s life and work.
“He’s one of the most prominent artists from the modern art world and one of the most prolific. He passed in 2011 and we’re still talking about his record-breaking paintings.
“We’re still talking about his latest works.”
Much of Husain’s later art was created and commissioned in London, Doha and Dubai, where he lived in self-exile since 2006, after facing backlash in India for a series depicting Hindu goddesses, which he painted a decade earlier.
In March this year, his 1954 painting, “Untitled (Gram Yatra),” sold for $13.8 million at a Christie’s auction in New York, becoming the most expensive Indian artwork ever auctioned.
He created thousands of artworks during his lifetime, including installations, paintings, drawings, lithographs, silkscreens, and film posters.
Many of them will be housed by Lawh Wa Qalam: M. F. Husain Museum, which the Qatar Foundation will open in Doha’s Education City on Nov. 28.
Spanning over 3,000 square meters, the museum “was born from a sketch by Husain himself and realized by architect Martand Khosla,” the foundation said in a statement last week. “A journey that began in Mumbai now finds a home in Doha.”
Husain’s work fused Indian folk culture, mythology and modernist abstraction. Some of his favorite motifs were horses, which he featured both in painting and motion as part of his installation work.
The museum’s galleries will also present his final works created in Qatar, including the Arab Civilization series, and his last and most ambitious project, “Seeroo fi al ardh,” which was commissioned by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of the Qatar Foundation.
An installation, it was completed posthumously in 2019. It features life-size horses made from the famed colorful hand-blown glass from Murano in Venice, alongside speeding cars — all spinning on a circular platform.
“He left instructions to the Qatar Foundation team and Sheikha Moza, who’s been the largest patron in his last years, on how to install the work,” Zaman said.
“It starts with footsteps, then it moves with galloping horses and then it moves on to sports cars, speeding sports cars … It’s magnificent.”
The Qatar Foundation has long been collecting works and forming partnerships with private collectors to bring them together under one roof, creating the largest-ever collection of Husain’s art.
The museum will also be the first devoted to a single Indian artist.
“I think it’s a great moment of pride for India,” Zaman said.
“This new museum is going to be a landmark.”
