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M.F. Husain responds to Mumbai terror with an angry work of art

‘RAPE OF INDIA’: M.F. Husain’s painting (acrylic on canvas). Photo by Sylvain Deleu, reproduced courtesy the artist.

LONDON: A painting by M.F. Husain on the Mumbai attacks, titled the ‘Rape of India,’ was on Wednesday unveiled at a leading London art gallery.

Mr. Husain, who was forced to leave Mumbai following a violent campaign by Hindutva fringe groups objecting to his depiction of ‘Mother India,’ said he had called his latest work the ‘Rape of India’ because to him what happened in Mumbai was as offensive and brutal as rape.

The master said the “blood-spattered” painting was an artist’s response to the outrage. “We’re painters. We can express our anger only through our art,” he said. ‘Rape of India’ is among 15 of his works on show at the Serpentine Gallery as part of an exhibition called ‘Indian Highway,’ which is conceived around issues central to the daily lives of millions of Indians. The entire exterior of the gallery, based in Kensington Gardens, has been given over to a series of large-scale paintings by Mr. Husain on India.

The exhibition, comprising works of some of India’s best-known artists, is part of the gallery’s focus on India, China, and West Asia and will run until February.

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