Guess who’s M.F. Husain’s new muse? Mamata Banerjee!
May 14th, 2011 - 1:17 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, May 14 (IANS) Depicting her as “essence of Indian womanhood”, Doha-based Indian artist M.F. Husain has sketched Trinamool Congress chief and soon to be chief minister Mamata Banerjee in a black-and-white graffiti for a leading daily.
This etching, typical of Husain’s Bharat Mata and Gajagamini style of figurative drawing, shows Mamata Banerjee in a slimmer and more glamorous avatar.
The artist posted the fetching graffiti portraying Banerjee — flying a dove of peace with a Royal Bengal tiger as a mascot by her side, in a posture akin to the Bengali goddess of strength Durga, poised over the globe for Hindustan Times here.
Banerjee, a mass leader and a union minister, is also an accomplished artist.
During the election campaign, she sold several of her paintings to raise money for the party. She, unlike Husain’s evolved figurative forms and abstract and cubist horses, paints colourful naturescapes. Banerjee is also a music aficionado.
In the 1990s, artist M.F. Husain shot to fame with his female figurative series of artwork, “Gajagamini”, inspired by Bollywood superstar Madhuri Dixit. Later, he made an eponymous movie starring the actress.
Husain, one of India’s most prolific and respected painters left the country in 2006 after the right-wing Hindutva groups protested his depiction of “Bharat Mata and Indian goddesses in the nude”, saying that his portrayal had hurt their sentiments. It triggered a legal debate following which the artist went in self-exile to London. He worked between Dubai and London.
Last year, he accepted an offer of citizenship from Doha.
- London art fair to highlight Husain's work - Feb 16, 2011
- From billboards to Madhuri: Husain's love affair with cinema - Jun 09, 2011
- Husain's special relationship with Hyderabad - Jun 09, 2011
- Husain loved shoes, says close friend Laxma Gaud - Jun 11, 2011
- Bal Thackeray prays for 'eccentric, adamant' Hussain - Jun 09, 2011
- Competitions, calendar release on Husain's birth anniversary - Sep 16, 2011
- Did political class let down Husain? - Jun 10, 2011
- I am still to be successful as a painter: Shuvaprasanna (Interview) - Jun 19, 2011
- BJP condoles Husain's death, Bajrang Dal opposes burial in India (Second Lead) - Jun 09, 2011
- Shameful that Husain couldn't be in homeland: Twitterati - Jun 09, 2011
- M.F. Husain's art gets bigger, crazier at 95 - Sep 17, 2010
- Life studies to abstraction: 60 years of Ram Kumar on canvas - Dec 15, 2010
- In exile, Husain wanted to destroy his paintings: Son - Jul 04, 2011
- For M.F. Husain, Shahnaz Husain was empress Noor Jahan (With Images) - Jul 03, 2011
- Husain was sad about not returning to India: Madhuri - Jun 11, 2011
Tags: aficionado, bengali, bharat mata, chief minister, congress chief, depiction, dove of peace, election campaign, figurative drawing, hindustan times, indian artist, indian goddesses, indian womanhood, legal debate, m f husain, madhuri dixit, mamata banerjee, royal bengal tiger, self exile, union minister