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MF Hussain is dead. He did live bloody long. Freaking 95 years! That's a helluva lot longer than most Indians manage. And, he led a charmed life, doing what he wanted.
For some reason, a lot of people have expressed that he was somehow shortchanged by an intolerant India.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2091330.ece
A nation has moral dilemmas when it has to chart a course to a new existence, accept a grave mistake, or when it reaches a cathartic moment in its history. Has MF Hussain contributed to any significant moment of India's history? Not one that I can remember.
Somehow nobody seems to remember that it was INDIA that produced MF Hussain, and it was INDIA that gave him the platform for him to be himself for 70 odd years. He was our celebrated artist when he was doing horses. Nobody understood what all the critics were neighing about, but we accepted that after Raja Ravi Varma and some other great artists that everybody can understand easily was great, here was a modern artist that perhaps normal people could not understand, but everybody had to appreciate.
We DID appreciate his shit for a long time, some out of some artistic sensibility that could tolerate the abstract, and the rest out of respect for an old man. In India, everybody has the freedom to bullshit everybody else and sell a lot of bullshit too! Nobody bothered Hussain for his caricatures and his lousy art. Of course this is just an opinion. Let us assume for a moment that he was indeed a great artist. Clearly he is no Picasso. He is no Van Gogh. So he is a level below those greats? Okay, so we still haven't produced any true great so we have this guy MF. That's fine. When we have no stallions or horses, a donkey can fill in for the post of Fastest Indian On Hooves! Since India could not tolerate this great artist, why not look at how well the rest of the world was dying for his awesome talent? So, how good is this guy? Considering how much he could sell in an international art exhibition, pretty shit. So, first and fucking foremost, let's accept this guy wasn't any great shit with his art. I don't understand Mark Rothko either, but his window pane crap sells for millions. MF Hussain's crap doesn't do even thousands. In the world of art, he ain't shit, this MF.
All art is appreciated by those who like it. Some can be made to like it with a lot of bullshit marketing around it. Modern art has no measuring scale. I can draw a long straight line and a short straight line, and it can be my interpretation of a fighter plane leaving an aircraft carrier or a male orangutan ejaculating. I am free to do any of that, and if you like it, you can buy it. For a long time, people did buy MF Hussain's work. The guy made a living through his art. Considering how good he became at this, he was more than making a living. He was making a killing!
Again, this is purely opinion, but since it is established that he is not amongst the best in the world, we can call his work SHIT. If a cricketer can be cursed as SHIT for not performing as part of our world champion cricket team, surely, a nobody in world standards can be cursed as SHIT. But a lot of Indian fools bought his rubbish work and paid him a fair bit for it. Was he grateful? He probably was, for there is no evidence the old coot was not.
Then came his controversial crap. For those of you who don't know what that "Shwetambari" fiasco was, he threw open an exhibition of his under this name, with absolutely nothing but plain white canvasses. Shwetambari is a celebration of white, get it? I think the crusty bastard had a sense of humour! Who can't hang plain canvasses? But it takes a conman SHIT artist like MF Hussain to pull a con like this, and give it a name! India did tolerate this, even gave him credit for doing something artistic.
I don't have a problem with super liberal, experimental, modern, edgy, controversial artists and their creative exhibitions and expressions, if they are not trying to make money or making a living from it. As soon as they depend on the world outside for reactions, appreciation and money, they should know that along with appreciation, they might get some brickbats. Sometimes, the criticism may not be as simple as, "I'm not paying for that SHIT!".
I am all for freedom too. But even for playing loud music, which is my freedom, I suppose, there is a limit where my neighbours cannot sleep. Now, I'm not asking my neighbours to pay for it, so they probably won't get mad at me beyond telling me to keep it down. This is purely social contract. It is not my intent either to get them mad at me. I really have no business offending them.
What people can be offended by is wide in variety. However, a person's religion is deeply personal sometimes. It is hard not to offend someone when you make a statement, however open to interpretation, that runs counter to all perceptions held sacred in that religion. It's not hard to see why practising Christians could get mad if I say, "Jesus was a pedophile!". There will be a few who would just say, "You're mad!" and move on, but if I stood in front of a Church and shout, "Jesus was a pedophile!", it is likely to get some pretty strong reactions. I should be intelligent enough to know when the line from opinion to offense is crossed.
If an 80+ year old man, after living in India for most of it, does not know he will offend people of the Hindu faith by drawing Hindu goddesses nude, and that too with his SHIT quality of art, then he isn't just a fool, he is a distilled moron. If he should not be jailed for offensive artistic expression leading to religious and social disharmony, he should be contained from being a lunatic causing nuisance. So, pretty please, if this kind of moron wants to leave the country, we should be very happy to see the average IQ of our nation's residents go up in one shot. Book the guy on the first flight out!
It was MF Hussain's choice to leave this country, only AFTER the reactions he got to his work. If an artist is free to express whatever s/he wishes, then the reactions must have the same expressional freedom. India allowed those reactions too, like a true democracy. What is everyone complaining about?
And then, which country did he go to? Did he go to a country that is known for great artistic freedom? No! He went to Qatar! Not a secular country, but a Muslim country! Is this just a coincidence? I can understand Qatar must be happy that there is at least one Muslim in the world of contemporary art - kind of like the one cross country skier India had at the Winter Olympics. Who cares if he is any good? He's got our flag there! Make some noise! Chances are, those Qatari rascals must have perceived some value in a guy who could get all the fundamental Hindus riled up. So, pretty please, Qatar, keep this son of our horse shit and his remains.
I'm all for a guy who had his fun, lived a full life, enjoyed the blessings of the journey, and tried his best to be a good artist. But if he got into trouble for being stupid, for being insensitive, I don't have a problem if he got dragged down to earth by a bunch of hooligans. Someone had to do it. Resentment doesn't wait 70 years in most cases. India has been mighty patient. So, enough already about not treasuring this fool.
MF Hussain was a celebrity just because he fulfilled to some extent India's home grown pseudo liberal farts' need for someone to throw hurrahs at. Most of them wouldn't recognize art from a horse's ass. Except maybe, that of one of the horses MF did.
- BSK.
For some reason, a lot of people have expressed that he was somehow shortchanged by an intolerant India.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2091330.ece
A nation has moral dilemmas when it has to chart a course to a new existence, accept a grave mistake, or when it reaches a cathartic moment in its history. Has MF Hussain contributed to any significant moment of India's history? Not one that I can remember.
Somehow nobody seems to remember that it was INDIA that produced MF Hussain, and it was INDIA that gave him the platform for him to be himself for 70 odd years. He was our celebrated artist when he was doing horses. Nobody understood what all the critics were neighing about, but we accepted that after Raja Ravi Varma and some other great artists that everybody can understand easily was great, here was a modern artist that perhaps normal people could not understand, but everybody had to appreciate.
We DID appreciate his shit for a long time, some out of some artistic sensibility that could tolerate the abstract, and the rest out of respect for an old man. In India, everybody has the freedom to bullshit everybody else and sell a lot of bullshit too! Nobody bothered Hussain for his caricatures and his lousy art. Of course this is just an opinion. Let us assume for a moment that he was indeed a great artist. Clearly he is no Picasso. He is no Van Gogh. So he is a level below those greats? Okay, so we still haven't produced any true great so we have this guy MF. That's fine. When we have no stallions or horses, a donkey can fill in for the post of Fastest Indian On Hooves! Since India could not tolerate this great artist, why not look at how well the rest of the world was dying for his awesome talent? So, how good is this guy? Considering how much he could sell in an international art exhibition, pretty shit. So, first and fucking foremost, let's accept this guy wasn't any great shit with his art. I don't understand Mark Rothko either, but his window pane crap sells for millions. MF Hussain's crap doesn't do even thousands. In the world of art, he ain't shit, this MF.
All art is appreciated by those who like it. Some can be made to like it with a lot of bullshit marketing around it. Modern art has no measuring scale. I can draw a long straight line and a short straight line, and it can be my interpretation of a fighter plane leaving an aircraft carrier or a male orangutan ejaculating. I am free to do any of that, and if you like it, you can buy it. For a long time, people did buy MF Hussain's work. The guy made a living through his art. Considering how good he became at this, he was more than making a living. He was making a killing!
Again, this is purely opinion, but since it is established that he is not amongst the best in the world, we can call his work SHIT. If a cricketer can be cursed as SHIT for not performing as part of our world champion cricket team, surely, a nobody in world standards can be cursed as SHIT. But a lot of Indian fools bought his rubbish work and paid him a fair bit for it. Was he grateful? He probably was, for there is no evidence the old coot was not.
Then came his controversial crap. For those of you who don't know what that "Shwetambari" fiasco was, he threw open an exhibition of his under this name, with absolutely nothing but plain white canvasses. Shwetambari is a celebration of white, get it? I think the crusty bastard had a sense of humour! Who can't hang plain canvasses? But it takes a conman SHIT artist like MF Hussain to pull a con like this, and give it a name! India did tolerate this, even gave him credit for doing something artistic.
I don't have a problem with super liberal, experimental, modern, edgy, controversial artists and their creative exhibitions and expressions, if they are not trying to make money or making a living from it. As soon as they depend on the world outside for reactions, appreciation and money, they should know that along with appreciation, they might get some brickbats. Sometimes, the criticism may not be as simple as, "I'm not paying for that SHIT!".
I am all for freedom too. But even for playing loud music, which is my freedom, I suppose, there is a limit where my neighbours cannot sleep. Now, I'm not asking my neighbours to pay for it, so they probably won't get mad at me beyond telling me to keep it down. This is purely social contract. It is not my intent either to get them mad at me. I really have no business offending them.
What people can be offended by is wide in variety. However, a person's religion is deeply personal sometimes. It is hard not to offend someone when you make a statement, however open to interpretation, that runs counter to all perceptions held sacred in that religion. It's not hard to see why practising Christians could get mad if I say, "Jesus was a pedophile!". There will be a few who would just say, "You're mad!" and move on, but if I stood in front of a Church and shout, "Jesus was a pedophile!", it is likely to get some pretty strong reactions. I should be intelligent enough to know when the line from opinion to offense is crossed.
If an 80+ year old man, after living in India for most of it, does not know he will offend people of the Hindu faith by drawing Hindu goddesses nude, and that too with his SHIT quality of art, then he isn't just a fool, he is a distilled moron. If he should not be jailed for offensive artistic expression leading to religious and social disharmony, he should be contained from being a lunatic causing nuisance. So, pretty please, if this kind of moron wants to leave the country, we should be very happy to see the average IQ of our nation's residents go up in one shot. Book the guy on the first flight out!
It was MF Hussain's choice to leave this country, only AFTER the reactions he got to his work. If an artist is free to express whatever s/he wishes, then the reactions must have the same expressional freedom. India allowed those reactions too, like a true democracy. What is everyone complaining about?
And then, which country did he go to? Did he go to a country that is known for great artistic freedom? No! He went to Qatar! Not a secular country, but a Muslim country! Is this just a coincidence? I can understand Qatar must be happy that there is at least one Muslim in the world of contemporary art - kind of like the one cross country skier India had at the Winter Olympics. Who cares if he is any good? He's got our flag there! Make some noise! Chances are, those Qatari rascals must have perceived some value in a guy who could get all the fundamental Hindus riled up. So, pretty please, Qatar, keep this son of our horse shit and his remains.
I'm all for a guy who had his fun, lived a full life, enjoyed the blessings of the journey, and tried his best to be a good artist. But if he got into trouble for being stupid, for being insensitive, I don't have a problem if he got dragged down to earth by a bunch of hooligans. Someone had to do it. Resentment doesn't wait 70 years in most cases. India has been mighty patient. So, enough already about not treasuring this fool.
MF Hussain was a celebrity just because he fulfilled to some extent India's home grown pseudo liberal farts' need for someone to throw hurrahs at. Most of them wouldn't recognize art from a horse's ass. Except maybe, that of one of the horses MF did.
- BSK.
