Muslim Triumvirate Rules India’s Art Republic

The art community has expressed shock and dismay over the Centre’s directive to the Mumbai police to take action against noted painter M F Husain. Several well-known artists from the city have questioned the government’s

move.-News report
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Secular India today has an enviable record. Despite a few aberrations, the country has shown a remarkable level of synthesis by integrating the minorities in its fold. The top two heads of the country are not Hindus that constitute eighty five percent of the population. Indeed, the President of India is Dr.Abdul Kalam, an enlightened scientist of Muslim birth and the Prime Minister is Dr.Manmohan Singh, a Sikh economist of high repute.

Are we not familiar with the historical first Triumvirate of Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus and the second Triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus, which presided over the destiny of Rome just before the Christian era? The present-day Indian art scene is being ruled by a veritable triumvirate of three Muslim painters, and that is an extraordinary situation indeed. This triumvirate commands a price of more than a million dollars for each of the paintings produced by them in the international market.

Leading the pack of three is M.F.Husain who lives in Mumbai (Bombay) and is more than ninety years old. Even at this old age he is prolific and indefatigable. He began his artistic life as a painter of movie hoardings but in due course his talent took him to dizzying heights. Endowed with a penchant for controversy and public relations, he has remained in the limelight continuously. His fame is only waxing although the quality of his output is steadily depreciating.

Next in fame to Husain is artist S.H.Raza, now more than eighty years old and who has been living in Paris over several decades. He along with Husain was a founder of the Progressive Artists’ Group in Bombay in 1950s. Raza has been decorated with several awards. He makes an annual pilgrimage to Mumbai in December every year to escape the Parisian winter.

The third one in the triumvirate is Tyeb Mehta, a quiet, self-denying and shy painter who is eighty and who lives in Mumbai. He cannot hide his amazement that his work fetches more than a million dollars. He benefits little since it is his old collectors who are making the huge profits.

What is also unique is the fact that they have not observed one whit the strict Islamic taboo of eschewing art. Indeed, in India most Islamic households do not display paintings. Calligraphic art display is what at best you would get. In fact, painter M.F.Husain has done several unthinkable things. He has shown strong obsession to portray Hindu gods and goddesses. And that too quite often in the nude, not without its attendant controversy! Raza’s early works show realism but of late he has gone into the Hindu theme of the power of bindu (central dot) and of concentric circles. The colourful concentric circles created by him are striking but you hear comments that any college kid can do that. Tyeb Mehta’s is the most simplistic work with just two or three flat colours neatly dividing the canvas along with some disfigured-looking form in the center. It is the long years of arduous work rather than innate quality of the finished product that would seem to command astronomical prices for his paintings.

This is not to suggest that there have not been painters of great merit apart from the three mentioned. F.N.Souza who settled down in New York and who unfortunately is no more has made a big impression in the art world. Artists like V.S.Gaitonde, N.S.Bendre, K.K. Hebbar et al have made a significant contribution in the Indian art-world.

The opening of India’s economy to the world and the entry of Sotheby’s and Christie’s into India, are in fact the primary reasons that have propelled the ruling triumvirate’s prices to astronomical heights. The New York Christie’s auction in last September of Tyeb Mehta’s painting titled Mahisasura ( a hindu demon-buffalo) fetched nearly 1.6 million US dollars. At a recent Sotheby’s sale,a Tyeb Mehta painting (Falling Figure with Bird) sold for 1.24 million US dollars and a painting by Raza called Tapovan sold for 1.47 million US dollars.

While there is understandable euphoria in Indian art circles about these developments, it has to be reckoned that the buyers at the international auctions have been generally rich expat Indians. To an extent they are not enlightened about the art world and would consider art purchase even at such astronomical prices only as sound investment policy. The international auctions have also been plagued by last-minute withdrawals of many paintings from sale due to questions raised about veracity and provenance.

But amidst all this, the art scenario in secular and democratic India has clearly shown to the world that Indian art is coming into some international recognition led by a triumvirate of three Muslim painters.