M F Husain dead

From H S Rao
London, Jun 9 (PTI) Celebrated Indian artist M F Husain,
who earned both fame and wrath for his paintings, died here
Thursday after being unwell for over a month.
He was 95.
Popularly known as MF and regarded as "Picasso of India",
the artist breathed his last at the Royal Brompton Hospital at
2.30 am local time.
Husain had been keeping "indifferent health" for the last
one-and-a-half month, family sources told PTI.
They said that funeral arrangements are yet to be
finalised.
Born in Pandharpur in western Indian state of Maharashtra
on September 17, 1915, Husain courted controversy over his
paintings of Hindu goddesses.
His paintings on goddesses Durga and Saraswati invited
the wrath of Hindu groups which attacked his house in 1998 and
vandalised his art works.
In February 2006, Husain was charged with hurting
sentiments of people because of his nude portraits of Hindu
gods and goddesses.
In the wake of legal challenges and death threats in his
home country, Husain had been living abroad in self-imposed
exile since 2006 and was offered Qatari citizenship in
January 2010, which he accepted.
As he had not responded to summons from an Indian
district court in Haridwar, his properties in India were
attached as per court orders and a bailable warrant was issued
against him by the court.
Though Husain had been saying that he was keen to return
to India, his wish had remained unfulfilled.
Three of Husain paintings recently topped a Bonham's
auction here, going under the hammer for Rs 2.32 crore with an
untitled oil work in which the legendary artist combined his
iconic subject matters -- horse and woman -- fetching Rs 1.23
crore alone.