A new museum dedicated to Indian artist M. F. Husain has opened in Qatar A new museum dedicated to Indian artist M. F. Husain has opened in Qatar

A new museum celebrating the life and work of renowned Indian cubist painter Maqbool Fida Husain is set to open in Qatar.

Lawh Wa Qalam: M. F. Husain Museum, in Doha’s Education City, will feature pieces from throughout his career, including the self-taught artist’s final works which were created in the country before his death in 2011.

While Husain was born in Pandharpur, India, and became a major player in the nation’s art scene, his latter years were mired in controversy due to his depiction of Hindu deities in the nude. He left India in 2006, splitting his time between the UK and Qatar, with the latter granting him citizenship in 2010.

The museum building itself was initially sketched by Husain and brought to life by architect Martand Khosla. Covering 3,000 square metres, the displays including features multimedia installations and archival materials.

Works on display include paintings from his Arab Civilization series, which were commissioned by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned, the wife of the former Emir of Qatar, and the co-founder and chair of Qatar Foundation, which is behind the new museum.

The collection includes his final work Seeroo fi al ardh (2019), which portrays humanity’s cultural and technological progress. Its title is a reference to the Qur’an, “Travel through the earth and observe how He began creation…”. Similarly, the museum’s name, Lawh Wa Qalam (tablet and pen) is also a reference to the Qur’an.

Husain was born to a secular Muslim family, and studied calligraphy before moving to Mumbai, where he worked designing toys and painting cinema posters.

Best known for his brightly coloured depictions of horses, urban landscapes and irreverent nude Hindu goddesses, Husain is credited with helping modernise the Indian art movement.

He was a founding member of the Bombay Progressive Artists Group in 1947 in present-day Mumbai, which sought to move away from traditional art styles in the wake of India’s fledgling independence.

In 2006, Husain fled his native land following death threats and several lawsuits filed against him for his ‘defamation’ of Hindu culture by the Indian government.

The artist once said: “You don’t do work for controversy alone, and whenever you do new work which people don’t understand, they say it is done to create controversy.”

Featuring in some of the 20th century’s most important international exhibitions, including the 1952 Venice Biennale, the 1960 Tokyo Biennial, and the 1971 Bienal de São Paulo, Husain’s work has an enduring legacy.

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1966, the Padma Bhushan in 1973, and the Padma Vibhushan in 1991 by the Indian government.

Husain was also made an honorary Member of Parliament in the Indian parliament, the Rajya Sabha, from 1986-92, where he observed parliamentary proceedings and created a book of sketches of his peers, Sansad Upanishad: M.F. Husain in Parliament (1994).

The artist died in 2011, in London, following a heart attack, at the age of ninety-five.

Qatar has a number of major new museums in the pipeline, including Lusail Museum, which will focus on Orientalist art, and the Art Mill Museum, the country’s new hub for modern and contemporary art. Education City, where the M. F. Museum is located, is also home to the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.

More information: qf.org.qa

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