A spotlight on the 'Picasso of India'

London based King’s Road Gallery provided one of the major attractions of the just concluded 20/21 International Art Fair in London in form of a work ( ‘Untitled’, 1970, oil on canvas. 90 x 180 cms) by the celebrated Indian artist, MF Husain. He is among India's most sought after living legends. This is a note from the Kings Road Gallery on the artist:

Muqbool Fida Husain, born in 1915, is known not only for his great body of figurative art, but also for his ground-breaking films. He is represented in many international museums and collections and is still painting in various studios across the world.

This self-taught artist reached Mumbai in 1937 determined to become an artist, with hardly any money. Initially he apprenticed himself to a painter of cinema hoardings he would paint with great dexterity perched on scaffolding sometimes in the middle of traffic. Husain was noticed for the first time in 1947 when he won an award at the annual exhibition of the Bombay Art Society.

Subsequently he was invited by Souza to join the Progressive Artist's Group. A great deal of experimentation in the early years led to some remarkable works, example include ‘Between The Spider And The Lamp’ among others. By 1955 he was one of the leading artists in India. He was a special invitee along with Pablo Picasso at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1971, and along with several solo exhibitions he also had major retrospectives in Mumbai in 1969, in Kolkata in 1973 and in Delhi in 1978.

In 1967 he won the Golden Bear at the International Film Festival at Berlin for his documentary 'Through the Eyes of a Painter' and has made several short films since then. Husain was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1973, the Padma Vibhushan in 1989 and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1986.

The early evolution of his painterly language was overtaken by adventurous forays into installations and performance art; his experimentation with new forms of art are both unexpected and pioneering. One of the most charismatic artists in India today, he is known for his emphatic understanding of the human situation and his sensitive depiction in paint.