MF Husain is the godfather of contemporary Indian art. The fucking king - he is to Indian art what Elvis was to rock and roll sans the whole stealing from African-Americans thing. In a perfect world, he would design all MF Doom cd covers but I digress. Husain is another graduate of Mumbai's Sir J.J. School of Art. After graduating he painted Bollywood hoardings. This foundation comes up in his work again. Previous muses have included Madhuri Dixit, Tabu, and most recently, Amrita Rao:
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Husain's a pretty controversial guy. In the 1990s he had a number of paintings that portrayed Hindu deities in the nude. In 1998 his home was attacked by Hindu nationalists and some of his work was vandalized. The leadership of the Shiv Sena endorsed this attack. This particular painting of Mother India in the nude, a map really, made a lot of people angry. I've been thinking about it for a tattoo.
Again, akin to Sunil Gupta, picking one or two of his paintings is quite difficult. Even moreso than Gupta I'd say. Though I've selected a few I'm particularly fond of to put up here:
Poets Faiz and Galib are depicted in the above piece. Recently it became public knowledge that the now 93-year-old painter has been writing a great deal of poetry. Rabindranath Tagore, Asia's first Nobel laureate in 1913 for literature, who's famous for his poetry (clearly), was a pretty awesome visual artist as well. One might say Husain's flipping the script. Anyway, Blue Head:
Dude loves horses:
For Serious:
There was a large piece behind the front desk at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai I can't find. If anyone can, please send me an image.
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