00:00He grew up in India, but his references went beyond South Asia.
00:05A new art museum has landed in Doha to celebrate the life and work of Indian modernist artist
00:11Maqbool Fidda Hussain.
00:13What began as a sketch Hussain drew in 2008 is now a landmark.
00:17A vivid blue museum with cutouts made of Arabic letters and a minaret inspired tower
00:23is the closest one can get to walking inside an artist's mind.
00:27Delhi-based architect Martin Khosla was tasked with the challenge of bringing Hussain's sketch to life.
00:34And it was from there that we had to start to extrapolate an architectural language,
00:38build it into a program while keeping it, the design of the building, keeping it true to the sketch.
00:46After three years in the making, Laohul Qalam, the MF Hussain Museum, is now open to the public.
00:53Laohul Qalam translates to the canvas and the pen.
00:57Six decades of the artist's works are on display, including many of his later pieces,
01:02inspired from Arab civilization and Islamic culture.
01:06While a household name in India, the hope is this new space in Doha's education city
01:11will introduce his work to an even wider audience.
01:14I'm based in India and not just me but an entire generation or several generations have grown up with MF Hussain's work.
01:22So I think almost everybody is well versed with his work because his works were in our airports and convention halls
01:31and paintings in people's homes and postcards and calendars and prints.
01:36So, you know, he was everywhere.
01:38Born in 1913, Hussain grew up in a time of profound change in India.
01:43A founding member of the Progressive Artist Group in Bombay, he championed freedom of expression
01:48and drew inspiration from the country's religions and social fabric.
01:52Besides him being a legend, he started from nothing.
01:55So he's a man of dreams, he's a man who stuck to his passion.
02:00One of his statements said that you shouldn't paint because you need to get money but you should paint because you have to.
02:08That means art comes from the heart and that's what that man stood for.
02:13It's a sentiment shared by actor Taha Shah Badusha, a rising name in the Indian film industry with nearly 2 million followers online.
02:21Everybody is creative nowadays and art is such a thing that satisfies you from within.
02:25Some of Hussain's controversial works resulted in threats leading to a period of self-imposed exile in Qatar before his death in 2011.
02:34Now his legacy continues in this new museum, paying homage to a barefoot artist widely regarded as a revolutionary force in Indian art, often even called India's Picasso.
02:48Adil Halim, Euronews, Doha.
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