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Rashda Siddiqui's
obsession with painter M.F. Husain began much before she met him (at a
soiree at Delhi's Hotel Ashok in 1976), when she was a Lucknav sophomore
"stealing" classes at the local college of art "because
in those days families never allowed you to study art". She collected
newspaper cuttings on Husain, did some casual sculpture and refined the
gesticulations of a dreamy prima donna waiting for her hirsute muse. But
the burden of anticipation left her grievously tongue-tied-she didn't
say a word to him when he was finally within earshot. "So what ...
at the next dinner at Akbar Hotel I sat next to him and asked him if he
would teach me how to paint."
 Since
then Siddiqui has possibly become Husain's closest friend as is evident
from her formidable coffee table book, In Conversation with Husain Paintings
(Books Today). He even sends her miniature sketches of his important works,
the way Vincent Van Gogh sent to Theo. "See, this is the last one
he sent," says Siddiqui, sitting in her south Delhi home, her thick
hair falling over her left shoulder like a Shahnaz Hussain promo (not
surprising, the two are cousins) and showing a jumble of barbed wire figures
on cartridge with the title, "The Knight Watch". (The work,
after Rembrandt's Night Watch, also shows the artist's knack of manipulating
the semantics without disturbing the phonetics.) She takes out another,
Shah Rukh Khan in Asoka, unmanipulated, and yet another from her bottomless
reservoir of Husain works. "I have so much material that I can write
more books on him."
This one is exhaustive enough, spanning almost every aspect of Husain's
legendary rise to the top in the Indian art world which, to a great extent,
was also his creation. Siddiqui wants to make sure that she is a part
of it more than anyone else-she has placed many of her photographs in
the book, the only other notable presence apart from the artist. And why
not, she asks, as Husain has made over 100 pictures of her, edifying her
historical status. The muses were mutual.
-Anshul Avijit
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CURRENT
ISSUE FEB 18, 2002
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