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Hindustan Times

Delhiwale: Painting a painter's Dilli

Painter Maqbool Fida Husain was briefly a Delhiwala. 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 110th birth anniversary, here's a glimpse of his Dilli. A short drive from Jangpura is Jamia Millia 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—clockwise from left: Bhomik, Tahoora, Shaibar, Aliza, Deeksha, Monika, Aqs, Muzammil, Varun, Belal, Saurav, Vikas, Raqib, and their assistant professor, Surangini Sharma.