Guest guest Posted May 15, 2006 Report Share Posted May 15, 2006 [No!!! I cannnot ... I simply cannot!!!!!! I cannot post it! I've been using poor Fida Husain to rev up discussion on the SS board. Ahh, okay I'll post it. The following article is not by me, but by Uma Nair in New Delhi, writing in New Kerala.com. Here's her take on the evergreen Husain "nude goddess" controversy:} The recent ravings of political groups as well as the centre's stance on M.F. Husain's "Bharat Mata" is a perfect example of drawing you into the moral dictates of who makes art and for whom, who responds to art and who crucifies it at the altar of politico-religious vendetta. Years ago I was asked to do a cover story on gods and goddesses and recall Husain sitting in the lobby of the capital's ITC Maurya Sheraton and sketching what he called "Earth Goddess" - a nude flying through the air with a babe between her thighs. I also recall Professor Amartya Sen commenting that it was a "brilliant evocation in the art of the abstracted contour". For Husain a nude is a symbolism. It is the metaphor of all that is created, celebrated and venerated. His nudes for over six decades are lyrically lithe contours - a balletic choreography of grace and fluidity. And there lies the paradoxical tension that animates Husain's entire career as an artist. The nude has been his composite subject matter and its contours have been the lingua franca of a gorgeously sensuous aesthetic. Of course Maqbool Fida Husain has been a compulsively provocative artist, and his series over the years have been the kind that could give your Victorian sensitivities an aerobic workout. For Husain the nude is the subject matter, and there is nothing unsettling about it. It is also the nature of Husain's involvement. Husain has never been the classic strait-laced artist who drops in on different sorts of newsworthy or social situations - the riots or the killings somewhere, say - and creates a work from a concerned distance. Husain is an artist with an eye for the powerful visual metaphor. Years ago his Andhra cyclone series had many nudes, they were brilliant comments on the abstracted terrain of the agony and tribulations of the life cycle of birth and death. The main impulse in Husain's nudes has been an urge to translate the dictums of the feminine fervour, of the vitality of the fertility of birth rather than the decadent degrading suggestions meted out by factions of blinded people who are all protesting. The nude for Husain is the argot of an artist who seeks to weave into his lingua franca his continual observations of the many facets of womanhood. Once on a trip back from the US he said it was fascinating to watch actress Mahduri Dixit in the role of a mother, walking around her home with her baby resting on her hip and handling household chores. At that time the "dhak dhak Madhuri" was his muse. But for Husain, Madhuri was the emblematic symbol of Indianhood. Husain's versatility in handling contours and subjects all through his life has been because he has been blessed with an extraordinary photographic eye and an unconscious clarity of artistic purpose. With perfect compositional instincts, he could rejuvenate the clichés of contemporary art in India. He could do the pensive portrait of an ode to Rembrandt with the ethos of destruction woven into the melancholy streetscape of a civilization's angst. For those of us who know Husain he has this quasi-quicksilver demeanour, a bohemian craziness that suffuses the quiet act of performance, and somewhere in between emerges this divine, softly- shadowed vision of a nude from one of his many series that he plays back and forth. Susan Sontag once wrote that the act of photographing "is a way of at least tacitly, often explicitly, encouraging whatever is going on to keep happening". This accounts for the moral queasiness some viewers feel while looking at Husain's more transgressive "Bharat Mata". Then all this raucous ruckus seems to be a case of much ado about nothing. If you do not understand Husain, you can be fooled. The "Bharat Mata" can be an example of being seduced into looking, and in that act of ignorant uninformed looking you become complicit in what feels like foolish voyeurism. The case registered against Husain of hurting national sentiments is a prime example of the willingness of some factions of society to contribute to the censoriousness of our times. Perhaps all these people should surf television channels and face the rather too obvious point that it is mainstream media culture that is hypocritically complicit in eroticising both adults and children. But the true beauty of the Husain's "Bharat Mata" is its marriage of form and contour: the shifting, sliding, unpredictably rhythmic brushwork tracking the indigenous flavour of topographical construct. Obviously the centre is not looking at art as an autonomous art form and vehicle of truth; and the recent brushes with overt forms of commerce in Indian art raking millions has unveiled the layers of fakeness and irony that have piled up. Art's truths are left behind. We Indians are a queer lot - while advertisers and media become ever more daring, or desperate, for attention-grabbing images, art has been reduced to deciphering its references for diatribes. The nude for Husain is a collective celebration of the human form, its life force triumphant over its very evident mortality. Art is about differentiating between true art and tawdry eroticism. India is an intriguing nation in the case of sexual mores. In a little-noticed milestone for the world of sex-related entertainment, Playboy said in December last year that it would seek to do in India what it had never done before - publish a magazine with its usual fare, except for its name and its nudes. This explains the "Bharat Mata" debacle. SOURCE: New Kerala URL: http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=58981 ------------------------ Sponsor --------------------~--> You can search right from your browser? It's easy and it's free. See how. http://us.click./_7bhrC/NGxNAA/yQLSAA/XUWolB/TM --~-> <*> / <*> <*> Your Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 15, 2006 Report Share Posted May 15, 2006 i KNOW artist see nudity differently and so are REAL SPIRITUAL SADAK .NUDITY in real terms stands for purity that is why Kali and Shiva are nude. When Shiva open's his third eye he destroys darkness. kali is dark because she takes away all our darkness. They both stand for TRANSFORMATION and purity. my daughter took art in A level - where in final year nudity was a subject - they get models and were asked to sketch them. Madonna was a model before she turned into a star. To her, it is nothing because that is the society she represents -she also used it as a tool for her commercial success. DO all normal people see with same eye. India is still conservative - why can't it be censored and shown among its own people of same background. Per say Nudity is not wrong nor vulger- Hussain has every right as an artist to express his passion. Why not he accept the boundries and take into account the sentiment of local people. THIS IS HIS DUTY as an artist AND THIS IS MY QUESTION ? I am not commenting on his work but I am questioning his indifferent attitude towards the sentiment of people. raji. ------------------------------ >[No!!! I cannnot ... I simply cannot!!!!!! I cannot post it! I've >been using poor Fida Husain to rev up discussion on the SS board. >Ahh, okay I'll post it. The following article is not by me, but by >Uma Nair in New Delhi, writing in New Kerala.com. Here's her take on >the evergreen Husain "nude goddess" controversy:} > >The recent ravings of political groups as well as the centre's stance >on M.F. Husain's "Bharat Mata" is a perfect example of drawing you >into the moral dictates of who makes art and for whom, who responds >to art and who crucifies it at the altar of politico-religious >vendetta. > >Years ago I was asked to do a cover story on gods and goddesses and >recall Husain sitting in the lobby of the capital's ITC Maurya >Sheraton and sketching what he called "Earth Goddess" - a nude flying >through the air with a babe between her thighs. I also recall >Professor Amartya Sen commenting that it was a "brilliant evocation >in the art of the abstracted contour". > >For Husain a nude is a symbolism. It is the metaphor of all that is >created, celebrated and venerated. His nudes for over six decades are >lyrically lithe contours - a balletic choreography of grace and >fluidity. And there lies the paradoxical tension that animates >Husain's entire career as an artist. The nude has been his composite >subject matter and its contours have been the lingua franca of a >gorgeously sensuous aesthetic. > >Of course Maqbool Fida Husain has been a compulsively provocative >artist, and his series over the years have been the kind that could >give your Victorian sensitivities an aerobic workout. For Husain the >nude is the subject matter, and there is nothing unsettling about it. >It is also the nature of Husain's involvement. > >Husain has never been the classic strait-laced artist who drops in on >different sorts of newsworthy or social situations - the riots or the >killings somewhere, say - and creates a work from a concerned >distance. > >Husain is an artist with an eye for the powerful visual metaphor. >Years ago his Andhra cyclone series had many nudes, they were >brilliant comments on the abstracted terrain of the agony and >tribulations of the life cycle of birth and death. The main impulse >in Husain's nudes has been an urge to translate the dictums of the >feminine fervour, of the vitality of the fertility of birth rather >than the decadent degrading suggestions meted out by factions of >blinded people who are all protesting. > >The nude for Husain is the argot of an artist who seeks to weave into >his lingua franca his continual observations of the many facets of >womanhood. Once on a trip back from the US he said it was fascinating >to watch actress Mahduri Dixit in the role of a mother, walking >around her home with her baby resting on her hip and handling >household chores. At that time the "dhak dhak Madhuri" was his muse. >But for Husain, Madhuri was the emblematic symbol of Indianhood. > >Husain's versatility in handling contours and subjects all through >his life has been because he has been blessed with an extraordinary >photographic eye and an unconscious clarity of artistic purpose. With >perfect compositional instincts, he could rejuvenate the clichés of >contemporary art in India. He could do the pensive portrait of an ode >to Rembrandt with the ethos of destruction woven into the melancholy >streetscape of a civilization's angst. > >For those of us who know Husain he has this quasi-quicksilver >demeanour, a bohemian craziness that suffuses the quiet act of >performance, and somewhere in between emerges this divine, softly- >shadowed vision of a nude from one of his many series that he plays >back and forth. > >Susan Sontag once wrote that the act of photographing "is a way of at >least tacitly, often explicitly, encouraging whatever is going on to >keep happening". This accounts for the moral queasiness some viewers >feel while looking at Husain's more transgressive "Bharat Mata". Then >all this raucous ruckus seems to be a case of much ado about nothing. >If you do not understand Husain, you can be fooled. The "Bharat Mata" >can be an example of being seduced into looking, and in that act of >ignorant uninformed looking you become complicit in what feels like >foolish voyeurism. > >The case registered against Husain of hurting national sentiments is >a prime example of the willingness of some factions of society to >contribute to the censoriousness of our times. Perhaps all these >people should surf television channels and face the rather too >obvious point that it is mainstream media culture that is >hypocritically complicit in eroticising both adults and children. But >the true beauty of the Husain's "Bharat Mata" is its marriage of form >and contour: the shifting, sliding, unpredictably rhythmic brushwork >tracking the indigenous flavour of topographical construct. > >Obviously the centre is not looking at art as an autonomous art form >and vehicle of truth; and the recent brushes with overt forms of >commerce in Indian art raking millions has unveiled the layers of >fakeness and irony that have piled up. Art's truths are left behind. > >We Indians are a queer lot - while advertisers and media become ever >more daring, or desperate, for attention-grabbing images, art has >been reduced to deciphering its references for diatribes. The nude >for Husain is a collective celebration of the human form, its life >force triumphant over its very evident mortality. > >Art is about differentiating between true art and tawdry eroticism. >India is an intriguing nation in the case of sexual mores. In a >little-noticed milestone for the world of sex-related entertainment, >Playboy said in December last year that it would seek to do in India >what it had never done before - publish a magazine with its usual >fare, except for its name and its nudes. This explains the "Bharat >Mata" debacle. > >SOURCE: New Kerala >URL: http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=58981 > > > ------------------------ Sponsor --------------------~--> Home is just a click away. Make your home page now. http://us.click./DHchtC/3FxNAA/yQLSAA/XUWolB/TM --~-> <*> / <*> <*> Your Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 6, 2006 Report Share Posted July 6, 2006 On 7/6/06, Devi Bhakta <devi_bhakta > wrote: > > LONDON (July 3, 2006): On May 22, London's Asia House Gallery shut > down a major exhibition by 91-year-old Maqbool Fida Husain, India's > most famous contemporary artist, after three men entered the gallery > and defaced two of his paintings—Durga and Draupadi. Finally... Someone is doing something. Thanks to those 3 men.. and Regards. I tip my hat to you.. off course I dont have a hat, but thats a different problem.. ha ha .. -- Thanks Dp [The force is feminine in nature] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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