Husain works back at India Art Summit

A day after painter MF Husain’s works were taken off the India Art Summit – the country’s biggest international art exhibition — because of threats to the gallery exhibiting his works and to the organisers, the master’s canvases were back on the walls on Friday.

A day after painter MF Husain’s works were taken off the India Art Summit – the country’s biggest international art exhibition — because of threats to the gallery exhibiting his works and to the organisers, the master’s canvases were back on the walls on Friday.

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This is the first time that the privately organised summit, launched in 2008, is showing Husain’s works. Threats from Hindu outfits claiming to be NGOs and individuals had deterred the organisers from displaying Husain’s works earlier.

Ashish Anand, owner of the Delhi Art Gallery, which is displaying the controversial maestro’s works, said, “I told the organisers enough is enough. Husain is the most important contemporary artist and it doesn’t make sense to have the summit without his works,” Anand said.

Photographer Ram Rehman of the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat), which organised a Husain art summit that was vandalised, said, “The fact that the gallery has put Husain’s paintings back on display will send out a very strong message to the vandals that intimidation is not going to work.”

Husain has been living in Dubai since 2006, following threats by Hindutwa activists in India.