I am an Indian origin painter. I will remain so to my last breath.

– MF Husain, The Dawn, June 2011

India’s leading modernist, MF Husain, was born in 1913 in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, to a Muslim family living in a Hindu temple town. Though largely self-taught, he spent his early years in Indore, where he attended evening classes at the Government Institute of Fine Arts, and took up painting landscapes of the surrounding landscapes. He eventually moved to Bombay, where his artistic talent earned him admission to the prestigious JJ School of Art in 1934. By day, he painted cinema posters and billboards to support himself, while continuing to work on his paintings by night. His breakthrough came in 1947, when his works were exhibited at the Bombay Art Society. That same seminal year of India’s independence, he co-founded the Progressive Artists’ Group alongside the finest of India’s modernists, FN Souza, SH Raza, KH Ara, SK Bakre, and HA Gade, marking the beginning of India’s tryst with modernism.

The fervour of a newly independent country and Husain’s humble upbringing drew him to look inwards for inspiration. While European modernism had a direct impact on the Indian modernists, including Husain, they sought to create a language of modernism that was entirely their own. Husain turned to centuries of Indian art and culture, its iconography, motifs and mythologies for subject matters that he would make unmistakably his own. His bold, confident lines, combined with a mosaic of colors infused an animated life to his works. His artistic explorations were not limited to painting, as he explored a variety of media such as printmaking, toymaking, furniture, design, and film.