‘Blissful’ faux pas

Saumit Singh

When MF Hussain had given his nod to paint with Shah Rukh Khan at the ‘Art for Freedom’ event, he had no idea of the irony in store for him in London. The theme must have meant a lot to Hussain himself, who’s been living in exile for years now because of the violent protests and legal cases slapped against his art.

For the record, the painting by Hussain and SRK was auctioned by Bonhams that very day for approximately Rs 1.3 crore. Several dozen more collaborative canvases were to go under the hammer, but when word got around that Delhi-based artist Raghu Vyas’ work was also on the list, all hell broke loose.

Years ago, Raghu Vyas had brought Husain’s lithograph ‘Sita Rescued’ to the notice of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Later, Vyas, who himself was a VHP activist, was among the VHP activists who tried to storm a Delhi art gallery housing in protest and he even lodged a police complaint against Hussain.

"He’s a known troublemaker and that’s why he’s never really been accepted into the art fraternity," says an artist who did not want to be named. "He also has some sort of ongoing feud with other artists like Jatin Das, Aparna Caur and Anjolie Ela Menon. It’s surprising that he was asked to part of an event in which Hussain was taking part."

Some artists strongly protested against Vyas and even threatened to pull out if he was allowed to be part of the Bonham auction. What followed was a quick attempt at damage control. A source at Bonhams confirms that the painting in question – by Raghu Vyas and Manisha Koirala titled ‘The Realm of Bliss’ – was quietly withdrawn just before the auction was to take place.

Says another source who was present in the auction hall at that time, "We were looking at the brochure as the lots went under the hammer when we realised that the announcer went straight from the painting before his to the one after. When Raghu got to know, he started shouting ‘Why is this being done?’

But with an overwhelming number of artists in no mood to back down, the painting had to be ultimately been put on a private site for sale. Even more ironically, the canvass is about peace – it shows a monk with folded hands in front of the Buddha. With a reserve price of Rs 6.3 lakh, it is still to find any takers.

Source: http://digital.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?queryed=&querypage=&eddate=&view=nw

Related HJS Section
Defamation: Abuse on Hinduism

Also See HJS Special
> HJS Campaign against MF Hussain
> Read Letters sent by alert Hindus to ABN AMRO