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Ebullient and eccentric at the same time, barefoot painter Maqbool Fida Husain took Indian art to the global stage with his cubist-inspired modern art but was riled in controversy with his paintings on Hindu deities.
Synonymous with contemporary Indian art, the painter was described as the ‘Pablo Picasso’ of India by Forbes magazine.
Born on September 17, 1915 in Pandharpur in Maharashtra, Husain was mainly a self-taught artist and made ends meet in his initial days by painting cinema hoardings in Mumbai.
Husain had once recounted that “We were paid barely four or six annas per square foot. That is, for a 6x10 feet canvas, we earned a few rupees.
“And apart from the New Theatre distributor, the others did not pay us at all. As soon as I earned a little bit, I used to take off for Surat, Baroda and Ahmedabad to paint landscapes.’’
Given his meagre earnings, Husain tried other jobs and one of the best paying was a toy factory where he designed and built toys.
The painter, who courted controversy over his paintings of Hindu gods, had been living abroad in self-exile since 2006.
His paintings on Hindu goddesses — Durga and Saraswati — invited the wrath of Hindu groups. His house was attacked in 1998 by Hindu groups and his art works were vandalised.
In February 2006, Husain was charged with hurting the sentiments of people because of his nude portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses.
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