THE SUPREME AESTHETE

M.F. HUSAIN (1915—2011) Painting was his natural rhythm and the world was his canvas

Yes, you could call Husain saab a control freak—he controlled his family, he controlled his art gallery owners, he even tried to control his patrons. He alone, from amongst his contemporaries, understood the power of marketing. When he decided to up his price astronomically, it appeared to be an arbitrary, irrational, even egocentric decision. It was anything but. It was a well thought through strategy that paid him rich dividends. But more than that, it shook up the disorganised art market and took everybody else’s prices up as well. This was the one thing he felt bitter about. While his contemporaries were swift to label him ‘commercial’, they refused to admit that their own prices had also gone up, thanks to him.

But what eventually broke his heart and crushed his soul was his banishment. One can argue that he chose to leave. But what choice did he have at that stage? Dealing with the worst crisis any artist could face, with death threats and acts of wanton vandalism, the 90-year-old left the country he loved with every fibre of his being, because staying back would have meant certain assassination. Nobody stood by him. Not even the powerful politicians he had gifted so many canvases to. Nor the artists’ community that had benefitted greatly by his global prestige. Nobody could deny it was M.F. Husain who had singlehandedly propelled contemporary Indian art on to the world stage. He died a lonely, sad and disillusioned man. What a punishment for a man who celebrated life in all its vibrancy. It’s such a shame we let down our greatest artist, and in the process, let ourselves down even more.