A BEAUTIFUL MIND
Maqbool Fida Husain is perhaps one of the best known faces of contemporary Indian art, with an equally well-known human interest story of rags to riches and death in exile angle to match his iconic stature.
In the entire hullabaloo surrounding his controversial life perhaps one loses sight of his signal contribution in changing the iconography of Indian art with his abbreviated symbology and visual anagrams built into his works.
A recent selection on display at the Vadehra Art Gallery put up as a mark of respect to the artist, reminds the connoisseurs of Husain’s remarkable ability to imprint an image of his work on the memory of the viewer. He did this by creating a signature image of a well-known mythological, historical or popular character, already familiar in the public sphere, be it Ganesha, Buddha or Gandhi, creating an empathy with the viewer. Thus he created his own canon of figures that were repeated within his own oeuvre, instantly recognisable and easily identifiable.
Without actually painting the face of Gandhi or Mother Teresa he made the drapery the essence of the persona. It seemed that Husain imbued the modest dhoti and staff with the implacable firmness masked within the flexible flowing words of Mahatma Gandhi that converted him into such an indomitable foe for the colonial state.
Similarly, he was able to capture the all-encompassing caring aura of Mother Teresa through the blue-bordered white sari of the nuns at Missionaries of Charity, bending over an infant or cradling a dying soul in her lap. The latter imagery is reminiscent of the Pieta, of Mother Mary holding the bleeding redemptive body of Christ after His descent from the Cross that creates an enduring image of Teresa as the redemptive figure, an epitome of charity, with an inclusiveness that is simple and yet sophisticated through its allusion to classical and popular traditions.
Dr Seema Bawa is an art historian, curator and critic
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