Friday, Jun 10, 2011
Gulf News
Dubai M.F. Husain painted thousands of iconic pieces of art during his lifetime but none of them were as close to his heart than a series of paintings he made 55 years ago.
Displayed at his penthouse in Emaar Tower near Dubai Creek in Deira, this awe-inspiring series is dedicated to a Czech woman he lost his heart to.
The year was 1956. Husain, then 41, was holding an exhibition in Prague when he met Czech interpreter Maria Zurkova.
“We developed an instant liking for each other. There was a unique chemistry between us. I didn’t have anything to give to her, so I gave her all 34 paintings that I displayed at my exhibition. Over the next five or six years, I travelled to Czechoslovakia many times and each time I would give her some of my paintings as a gesture of my love for her,” Husain told this writer in an interview in 2007.
“Then we lost touch. For over 40 years I didn’t hear from Maria until August 2006 when we were reunited through a common Australian friend.”
“It was an emotional moment as we tried to fill the gaps. Maria had married but she had not forgotten me. She had lovingly treasured each of my 80 paintings all these years. She wasn’t doing well financially and could have made a fortune by selling them. But she didn’t. Instead she returned all the paintings except one — a portrait that I made of her in the late fifties.”
‘I want to treasure’
“I was speechless. What could I say? So I brought the entire collection to Dubai and put them on display at my apartment. It’s called the Maria Collection and it’s estimated to be worth Dh70 million, possibly a lot more, but it’s not for sale. It’s something I want to treasure,” he said as he took us through the series.
By Mazhar Farooqui?Deputy Editor, XPRESS
Gulf News 2011. All rights reserved.
