In 2006, at the age of 91, the pioneering Indian modernist M.F. Husain left India, first for London and then for Doha, where Qatar’s then First Lady Sheikha Moza bint Nasser offered him citizenship and patronage. It was there, in the twilight of his life, that he painted his grand series on Arab civilisation — thirty-five vast canvases celebrating desert epics, astronomy, and the poetry of motion. He died in 2011, still an exile, still identifying as an “Indian-born painter”.
Maqbool Fida Husain, better known as M.F. Husain, was India’s most celebrated modernist — a barefoot painter whose bold, fluid lines redefined how the nation saw itself after Independence. A founding member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Husain blended folk forms, mythology, and cinema into a visual language that was both deeply Indian and cosmopolitan. His horses galloped across canvases like untamed spirit animals of a country in motion; his goddesses embodied both reverence and rebellion, earning him the moniker ‘the Picasso of India’.
However, during the 1990s and 2000s, the very mythology that inspired some of his most iconic works ultimately resulted in his exile from India. The controversy originated from a series of paintings he produced in the 1970s and 1980s, which depicted Hindu deities such as Saraswati, Durga, and Bharat Mata (Mother India) in the nude. For Husain — who drew extensively from Indian mythology, temple sculpture, and classical art traditions — these works represented expressions of reverence and modern reinterpretation. Nonetheless, in the 1990s, as Hindu nationalism gained political momentum, these images were appropriated by right-wing groups as symbols of “blasphemy” and “obscenity.”
By the late 1990s, the backlash had become violent. Several of his exhibitions were vandalised, criminal complaints were filed across multiple Indian states, accusing him of “hurting religious sentiments”, and major galleries started withdrawing his work due to fears of protests. In 1998, his home in Mumbai was attacked and destroyed by a mob, and he began receiving death threats. Although the Supreme Court later dismissed the charges as unfounded, the social and political environment remained hostile — leading to his eventual departure from India in 2006.
Almost 15 years after Husain’s death, the Qatar Foundation has announced the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam: M. F. Husain Museum in Doha, dedicated to the modernist master, on 28 November 2025. The museum, covering 3,000 square metres, will be the first in the world to focus on Husain's career and will feature a permanent collection of his works — including paintings, films, poetry, installations, and photography from the 1950s until his death in 2011. The museum will also house over 35 paintings commissioned by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of the Qatar Foundation, that reflect Arab civilisation. The building’s design, realised by architect Martand Khosla, is based on a sketch by Husain himself.
The museum will open to the public on November 28, 2025. Learn more about the museum here.
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