India’s exiled artist Husain dies in London

India’s most famous modern artist, M.F. Husain, who fled the country in 2006 after death threats from Hindu extremists, died in London yesterday aged 95.

President Prathiba Patil’s office in New Delhi said that Husain, often called “The Picasso of India”, passed away in hospital in the British capital during the early hours of the morning.

Indian media cited family members saying that he had suffered a heart attack and lung failure after being in “indifferent health” for several weeks.

The painter’s death brought to an end a controversial chapter in modern India, which showed how religious sentiments could still be easily aroused – often for political ends – and how artistic self-expression was limited.

Hindu conservatives may have denounced his works as pornographic and blasphemous when he was alive, but in death he was remembered countrywide as the artist who put modern Indian art on the map.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his death was a “national loss”, while Patil said he was a “world-renowned artist whose extraordinary style made him a celebrity on his own right in the arena of contemporary paintings”.