2025 will be remembered as the year when Husain made the biggest comeback in the world of art. In March, he became the most expensive Indian artist ever with a record-breaking auction of his work ‘Gram Yatra’ (1954) for Rs 118 crores. The MF Husain museum opened to the public in Doha, his adopted home, last week — it’s a fitting finale for an artist who planned for his legacy beyond his life.
Spread across 3,000 square metres, the Lawh Wa Qalam museum established by Qatar Foundation in Education City, Doha, features the artist’s final works created in Qatar, including the Arab Civilization series. Personal objects and diverse works across genres and media that were made during his lifetime in India, prominently find a home in its galleries.
The opening night gala started with a grand video show that played across the huge façade of the museum building. Qatari royalty, global collectors Lakshmi Mittal, Gauri Khan, Radhikaraje Gaekwad of Baroda, Indian artists Subodh Gupta and Riyas Komu along with other admirers, watched in awe as Husain’s paintings — his birds flying across the Mumbai sky, his Kathakali dancers teasing you with their eyes, his horses in full gallop and his camels — moved across the façade in animated glory.
Following Husain’s sketch
“My long brush like the camel lost in a desert has found the golden sand in Qatar,” said Husain. In a letter to HH of Qatar, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, who spearheaded and helped realise his dream, even if it took 14 long years to complete after his death in 2011, Husain had proposed, “99 paintings of Arab culture dating back to Babylon Era. An installation of 5 horses in crystal as a symbol of strength. A museum to be built to house the collection of my Indian heritage — paintings, sculptures, films and written words. A museum to be built, designed by me. Please consider me a small soldier in the army of your cultural force.”
The museum was inaugurated by the Sheikha. Lawh Wa Qalam is part of the international circuit of art, and the architect, Martand Khosla had to imagine several conversations with the artist while making sure the building carried the ethos and look of Husain’s coloured sketch, while making it functional and technically sound. “Some interpretations are literal but some are metaphorical like his cultural links and larger sense of identity. For example, different types of arches of a place, references to Yemen or Central Asia. We were thinking at several levels,” said Khosla.
The walls curve and glow with thousands of pieces of pastel blue tiles covering the façade of the building which suddenly breaks into a sharp sheen of a large and elegant arched door in gold. A coloured sketch of this blue building made by the master of Modern Indian art, Husain, in 2008, has finally seen the light of the day with much fanfare. The letters inscribed on the façade of this building read ‘Lawh Wa Qalam’ in Arabic, which means The Tablet & The Pen referring to the divine written word. But in this case, Husain chose to reinterpret the phrase for being the author of the final chapter of his own story.
End-life works, unseen works
The museum has over 150 works of Husain across two levels — one collection displays works that he made across decades of his life in India, including a few items close to his heart — his last used paint palette, brushes, last worn kurta with paint splashes and his Indian passport, an identity book he gave up after much pain and struggle in the face of heightened stress that he faced amidst protests and death threats in India for certain works deemed controversial.
His Qatari citizenship in the last and final year of his life, came with a promise of peace and building on his legacy further. So the second collection of the museum contains works that he made in Doha till his death. These include some of the 35 paintings he made from his unfinished series of 99 works on the Arab civilization. These have never been seen in public before. 'The Battle of Badr' (2008) shows Husain’s famous horses ride towards the pivotal military victory of 624 AD. 'Yemen' (2008) takes Husain back to his own Arab roots to depict nomadic life and mud houses in the desert. And 'Zuljanah' (2007) is a portrait of the grey Arabian stallion of Imam Hussain celebrated for his role in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD.
Noof Mohammad, the curator of the museum explains, “As an artist, you don’t need to confine yourself to one medium – this will resonate with every visitor. You can excel in many different styles after you test and work in it. Husain started with calligraphy as a young boy and you see his work expand till his last breath. He did these combinations of what all he learnt. Like in the ‘Battle of Badr’ (2008) he writes in Arabic which were verses from the Quran that he first learnt in his life as a child.”
The finale of the museum collection is a kinetic installation conceptualized by Husain in 2009, called “Seeroo fi al Ardh”. It’s an Arabic verse which translates to “Walk in the Land”.
Husain my friend
I say it with great pride and humility that MF Husain became my friend in the last and final decade of his life. I met him often to shoot and interview him. He was 65 years older than me but one never felt the age gap.
When I had sat with him inside his red Ferrari for a short drive, he started humming a tune and told me that he plans to make this sports-car a part of an upcoming work. I laughed it off at that time. A week after my shoot, he was flying to Italy to work on his Morano horses. It feels great that he had shared with me these tiny bits which are now part of ‘Seeroo…’, and are placed in a huge circular hall next to the main building. A red-mosaic wall of ceramic chips that form a painting of Husain’s famous running horses creates a stunning backdrop for the stage. A sculpture of a winged man cast in Husain’s signature style of human form comes swooping down from above. The horses are in five stunning colours as light reflects through them to create magical shadows. As they run on stage in circular patterns, they disappear under it to clear the way for vintage cars which spring up on hydraulic lifts and zoom in the outer circle.
In Husain’s own words when he conceptualised this work, “The entire ensemble is like a performance of dancing horses in crystal glass set to the tune of traditional songs of horsemanship, chivalry and strength.” Every aspect of this was left behind by Husain with detailed instructions. He sketched out every movement, every light mood, every musical note, every mould of the glass horses and selected every car for the piece.
The museum is a triumph of human spirit, unprecedented posthumous glory and the honour of a promise.
Sahar Zaman is an award-winning author, multimedia journalist, cultural curator and an advocate of the Orange Economy. She has Founded Asia’s first web-channel dedicated to the Arts, called Hunar TV.