MF Hussains Work Excluded From the India Art Summit for a second year in a row

Artnet News
July 28, 2009

PAINTER EXCLUDED FROM INDIA ART SUMMIT

For the second year in a row, one of India’s swankiest art events, the India Art Summit, is being overshadowed by terrorism threats. The event is set to bow Aug. 19-22, 2009, at the Pragati Maidan exhibition center in New Dehli, with 54 galleries -- primarily from India, but including a handful from the U.S. (Aicon Gallery, Thomas Erben) and the UK (Artquest, Lisson, Rob Dean Art and W.H. Patterson). At the inaugural India Art Summit in 2008, controversy swirled around the organizers’ prohibition of the display of works by M.F. Husain (b. 1915), following threats from right-wing Hindu groups. The ban has been repeated for the 2009 edition, to the dismay of Husain’s dealers, members of the Indian art community and relatives of the 93-year-old artist.

Husain is regularly referred to as a "legend" of the Indian art world. One of his paintings, Battle of Ganga and Jamuna, Mahabharata 12 (1971-1972), sold for $1,609,000 at Christie’s New York last year. His achievements, however, have been somewhat overshadowed in recent years by a few controversial works depicting Hindu goddesses Durga and Saraswati in the buff (the artist himself is a Muslim), which have inflamed religious sentiments. Threats against his life led him to go into self-imposed exile in 2006 -- according to the New York Times, at one point there was even an $11-million bounty on his head -- and he now divides his time between homes in London and Dubai.

On Sunday, organizers of the India Art Summit released a statement once again forbidding inclusion of Husain’s work by exhibitors. "While we acknowledge the lifelong achievements and the iconic status of artists like M.F. Husain in Indian art," it read, "we are unable to put the entire collective concern at risk by showcasing artists who have, in the past, been received with hostility by certain sections of the society unless we receive protection from the government and the Delhi police."

In 2008, the exclusion of Husain drew the attention of foreign luminaries like Robert Storr, who was quoted as saying that "if you have one of the most famous artists of India not present then people should think twice about how it happened." Within India, the incident stirred enough passion that a group of supporters, the SAHMAT collective, organized an exhibition of reproductions of Husain works at India International Centre in protest -- though anti-Husain vandals did in fact disrupt this show, giving some credence to the fair’s concerns.

Still, the exclusion of such a blue chip painter is a blow to the credibility of an event that aspires to be the apex of the Indian art world. Ashish Anand of Delhi Art Gallery told the Calcutta Telegraph that he had intended to show five of Husain’s early works at the Summit, plans that obviously have to be rethought, while Peter Nagy of Gallery Nature Morte told the CNN-IBN news network, "If you can’t show Husain in an art fair in the capital then where else?" From his exile, Husain himself seems to have shrugged off the controversy, saying simply that "it’s all part of a 15-year-struggle."

For more info on India Art Summit, see www.indiaartsummit.com