Painting a painter’s city.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Painter Maqbool Fida Husain was briefly a Delhi walla. He lived in a barsati, and cruised around town in his self-painted fiat car. Today, his works grace the venerable National Gallery of Modern Art, near India Gate, as well as scores of super-rich residences across the capital. He even has a Gurugram road named after him.

While not from Delhi, the barefoot bohemian made the city his home during the 1960s and 70s. This year being Husain’s 110tth birth anniversary; here’s a glimpse of his Dilli.

Overlooking the monumental Jama Masjid, Old Delhi’s Naaz Hotel books its place in art history for having a guest room double up as Husain’s work-studio. The painter’s real Delhi pad though was Jangpura Extension, a rented barsati in J block. That said, he would often be sighted not in Jangpura, but in next-door Nizamuddin Basti. There he patronised a particular tea stall in the historic ‘hood, often lounging with good friend, the great painter Tayeb Mehta, who lived in nearby Nizammuddin East. Still years away from their “legendary artist” status, both men would huddle in the stall, chatting over malai wali chai, garnished with a pinch of salt. (By the way, this year happens to be Tyeb Mehta’s centenary.)

A short drive from Jangpura is Jamia Milia Islamia University, whose MF Husain Art Gallery was designed by the noted architect group Romi Khosla Design Studio. It was inaugurated in 2008 by eminent painter Satish Gujral. The wall beside the main door displays a calligraphed letter by Husain, which he wrote to the gallery in gratitude for naming it after him.

In Connaught Place, the A Block venue that houses UNIQLO showroom used to be an art gallery that, in 1995, memorably put up an exhibition of Husain’s paintings inspired from actor Madhuri Dixit. Both stars attended the talk-of-the-town opening.

Last and most significantly, the great living monument to the painter currently happens to be a classroom in the aforementioned Jamia’s Art Faculty. This afternoon, the third year Applied Arts graduate students are creating original murals inspired from MF Husain. See photo: Bhomik, Tahoora, Shaibar, Aliza, Deeksha, Monika, Aqs, Muzammil, Varun, Belal, Saurav, Vikas, Raqib, and their assistant professor, Surangini Sharma.