HYDERABAD : The late MF Husain, the legendary artist who made Hyderabad his home is known as the Picasso of India as he’d blend the mythological with the cubism forms to create opuses that were magnificently and uniquely his own. Famous for horses painted on canvas, artworks that were scrolls of different tales from history as well as imagination Husain’s works were sold for really high prices.
The recently demolished Cinema Ghar at Road No 12, Banjara Hills had a large exhibition hall where the artist would showcase many of his artworks in large frames. The oeuvres were moved to Mumbai before he chose self-exile for himself outside India as he’d constantly get death threats from the rightwing extremists after his works stirred controversy pertaining to the deities that he painted allegedly in states of undress.
Some of Husain’s serigraphs are being showcased at Kalakriti Art Gallery, officially relocating to Road No 4, Banjara Hills. Informs Rekha Lahoti, the director of Kalakriti, “The serigraphs that we have in our collection were taken while Husain was still alive. It was the year 2008. These were printed in Dubai and brought from there back then. To view these works, visitors can schedule an appointment beforehand.” In all, there are five thematic sets of serigraphs, each containing eight individual serigraphs.
One serigraph showcases the Mahabharata series. The master-artist worked in oil, acrylic, mixed media, watercolours, drawings, lithographs, and tapestries along with serigraphs during a prolific period of six decades. The serigraphs on the epic Mahabharata showcase how he could convert mythical tales especially related to tragedies into powerful contemporary statements. It was in 1971 when he first painted the Hindu epic when he was invited to the São Paulo Biennial.
Husain and Pablo Picasso were the only artists, who were offered exclusive exhibition space there. Through Mahabharata’s portraiture of the horrors of war, Husain created the series. The same was partially inspired by Guernica painted by Picasso on the blood and gore of war. In 1983, he again chose to create the ‘Mahabharata’ series as commissioned by the American collector Chester Herwitz. That’s how in the opuses Husain depicts many characters from the epic. For example, Bhishma on the bed of arrows, Gandhari, Draupadi, Abhimanyu and Ganesh in bright yellow and orange with Mahabharat written in Devanagari, the script for Hindi.
— Saima Afreen saima@newindianexpress.com @Sfreen