Husain lives in his art
Celebrated Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain, who was on a self-imposed exile from India, died at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London early on Thursday morning.
He was 95.
Husain had been admitted to the hospital with fluid retention in lungs, but had recovered enough to plan dinner in the coming days with friends, sources close to his family said.
However, he passed away at 2.30 am local time on Thursday (7 am IST)
India's most famous modern artist M.F. Husain, who left the country in 2006 due to threats from Hindu extremists, died on Thursday in London, media reports in India said citing family members.
Husain, who was aged 95 and known as the 'Picasso of India', died at the Royal Brompton hospital in London, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
Indian television news channels reported he had suffered a heart attack and lung failure.
"India didn't have the privilege of seeing him in his last moments, that is a huge loss for this country," Jitish Kallat, one of India's leading young artists
"As an artist several decades younger than him, I feel like a part of the canopy has blown off," he said. "He evolved the public notion of what it meant to be an artist in this country."
Maqbool Fida Husain, a Muslim formerly based in Mumbai, was accused by Hindu hardliners of insulting their faith for portraying goddesses in the nude in some of his paintings, a depiction that he said symbolised purity.
Following threats by a radical Hindu group that offered a reward of $11.5 million for his death and thousands of legal cases filed against him for offending "Hindu sentiment," he moved to Qatar in 2006 and accepted Qatari citizenship in 2010.
In 2008, Husain's works were attacked by members of the Bajrang Dal, a right-wing Hindu group, at an event in New Delhi, the same year that one of his paintings, influenced by a Hindu epic, fetched $1.6 million, setting a then world record at Christie's South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale.
Legendary painter with actress Tabu at a book release function in Mumbai in Oct 2002.
M F Husain with actors Rekha and Shahrukh Khan at a book release function in Mumbai in Oct 2001
M.F. Hussain with actor Aamir Khan at an art function in Mumbai in Jan 2005.
Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam felicitating M. F. Husain during the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi on Monday, Aug 9, 2004.
due to complications that led to a heart attack.
He was popularly known as MF and regarded as 'Picasso of India'.
Husain had been keeping 'indifferent health' for the last one-and-a-half month, family sources said.
His body is being kept at the hospital and the funeral arrangements for Friday are being finalised by Husain’s six children, according to the family’s close friends in London.
However, there is no final confirmation of the time and venue of the burial as yet.
The family had been offered all help by the Indian high commission to send the eminent painter’s body to India, if they so wished. But the family decided to carry out a burial in the UK.
There were rumours earlier that Husain would be buried in India, but they are false.
Born in Pandharpur in Maharashtra on September 17, 1915, Husain courted controversy over his paintings of Hindu goddesses.
His paintings on goddesses Durga and Saraswati invited the wrath of Hindu groups which attacked his house in 1998 and vandalised his art works.
In February 2006, Husain was charged with hurting sentiments of people because of his nude portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses.
In the wake of legal challenges and death threats in his home country, Husain had been living abroad in self-imposed exile since 2006 and was offered Qatari citizenship in January 2010, which he accepted.
As he had not responded to summons from an Indian district court in Haridwar, his properties in India were attached as per court orders and a bailable warrant was issued against him by the court.
Though Husain had been saying that he was keen to return to India, his wish had remained unfulfilled.
Three of Husain paintings recently topped a Bonham's auction here, going under the hammer for Rs 2.32 crore with an untitled oil work in which the legendary artist combined his iconic subject matters - horse and woman - fetching Rs 1.23 crore alone.
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