The grand old man of Indian painting, M.F. Husain, can’t have his work shown at the Indian Art Summit because of security concerns. Hindu fundamentalists have threatened to do violence to anyone showing the artist’s work in reaction to his depiction of goddesses. Naturally, this is a scandal in India where balancing free speech and sectarian violence is never easy. One artist, however, has a novel response. He’s showing paintings of Husain himself:
For artist Ravi Gossain, the protest has taken the form of an 11-piece exhibition titled Husain Par Fida that will open on the same day as the summit at Ragini art gallery in New Delhi. […]
But Gossain’s exhibition is more personal. It is an artistic tribute to the master painter through life-sized oil and acrylic canvasses with some as large as 7ft x 16ft. The works range from flamboyant depictions that show the artist in a red Ferrari, Husain and Henry Moore, to ones that show him hospitalized, Husain in ICU.
Gossain’s vision of Husain is all grandeur. In his paintings, the otherwise barefoot painter wears high boots. His rendition of the artist is quirky as well: When put under a scanner in a hospital scene, Husain Under Scanner, the scanner shows colour bars rather than a lifeline.
Husain Left Out, But He Gets an Artistic Tribute (Livemint.com)
