Husain lives in deathless art

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M.F. Husain, seen here with former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in New Delhi on August 9, 2004. PHOTO: PTI

Celebrated Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain, who was in self-imposed exile from India, died at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London early on Thursday morning. He was 95.

Husain had been admitted to the hospital with fluid retention in the lungs, but had recovered enough to plan dinner in the coming days with friends, sources close to his family said. However, he passed away at 2.30 am local time Thursday (7 am IST) due to complications that led to a heart attack.
His body is being kept at the hospital and the funeral arrangements for Friday are being finalised by Husain’s six children, according to the family’s close friends in London. However, there is no final confirmation of the time and venue of the burial as yet.
The family had been offered help by the Indian high commission to send the eminent painter’s body to India, if they so wished. However, the family decided to carry out a burial in the UK. There were some rumours earlier in the afternoon that Husain would be buried in India, but these turned out to be incorrect.
Born at Pandharpur, Maharashtra on September 17, 1915, Husain left India in self-exile in 2006 and then divided his time between London and Dubai. Husain, who has been targeted by right-wing protesters for painting Indian goddesses in the nude, never returned to India after that. In 2010, he was conferred Qatari citizenship and he gave up his Indian passport.
However, he wanted to return to India and work there, according to Husain’s friends, who did not wish to be identified. “His heart was in India, but he had reconciled to the fact that he would not be able to return,” one of them said.
Husain always used to visit auctions of contemporary South Asian art in London whenever he was in the city during summer. However, he missed the Sotheby’s auction on May 31 and his The Sixth Seal, estimated to sell for at £400,000-500,000, could not be sold along with other important paintings by Indian artists like Syed Haider Raza. However, at the Christie’s auction on Thursday afternoon, his Untitled (Sita with the Golden Deer), which he painted in 1991, was sold for £70,850, including buyer’s premium. It had been estimated to sell for £50,000-£70,000. Another Untitled painting, which had been estimated at £15,000-£20,000, sold for £37,250 at the auction.
Husain’s last exhibition in London was held jointly with artist Sunita Kumar of Mother Teresa fame at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London last year in June.
The news of his death prompted an outpouring of grief in India where, Husain always claimed, “99 per cent” of people loved him. In 1955, he was awarded the Padma Shri, and received the Padma Bhushan in 1973. In 1986 he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in the eminent persons’ category. In 1991 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second-highest honour.