M.F. Husain would laugh, tongue-in-cheek, whenever birthday parties were hosted for him as he entered his 88th year.
If a belly dance had been set up for one such evening, he didn’t balk at the idea of saucy entertainment. In fact, he performed a quaint little belly jig himself to enhance the mood of the evening. Absolutely candid about the thrill he derived from his iconic status, besides being unwaveringly sharp to ensure that his canvases fetched the highest prices in the art market, he would admit: “Frankly, I have always been a bestseller.”
He longed to recall his mother, who passed away before he could sketch her in his memory. Practically every woman whom he has paid an ode to through his art is an alter-ego of his mother.
Perhaps that’s why we never see distinct, outlined features of women on his canvases. Take his minimalist recreation of Mother Teresa. He would say there was no need to detail the face, a mother lives within the heart and mind. Firmly, Husain would add that he is not an artist of photographic images or traditionally figurative illustrations.
His art debunked categories. If he pursued any theme, it was of humanism, his colours and strokes being thick and swift. Picasso’s Guernica was the one work which drove him to tears, the lighting patterns of Rembrandt excited him, the sheer modernity of Andy Warhol he approved of, albeit within limits. He abhorred comparisons with any artist, affirming that his inspiration was rooted in the Indian soil.
Unbeknownst to many, Husain crafted wooden toys of bullock carts, farmers harvesting crop and rustic musicians. His more sophisticated, elliptical paintings have been lauded as his finest achievements although he contradicted that by insisting that he has been evolving every new day.
Of late, Husain had started writing poems and essays which would chronicle his self-imposed exile since 2006. The poems, written in black felt ink, add up to a thick tome which certainly needs to be collected and published.
Constantly, he would console his friends that he would return to India.