Shah Rukh Khan is the next Bollywood actor who has taken up the artists brush and he got to paint with none other than legendary artist M F Husain. MF Husain who was named “Picasso of India” by Forbes magazine is one of the greatest contemporary artists of today. At 92 he is still going strong and is known for walking bare feet and for carrying a paintbrush wherever he goes. Shah Rukh Khan is someone we are sure you have heard of.
The collaboration of the two was for an event called “Art for Freedom” which was held to raise support for art and media. The auction included this piece as well as 35 works done by top artists like S H Raza, Akbar Padamsee, Jogen Chowdhury, Jatin Das, Aparna Caur and Yusuf Arakkal. These artists also worked with Indian and UK celebrities to create a collaborative piece. Also working together were London-based artist Angeli Sonwani and Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, NRI industrialist Sir Ghulam Noon teamed up with Paresh Maity, Shamshad Husain with Surina Narula, Farhan Mujeeb with actor Naseeruddin Shah among others. Anjana Kuthiala, another well-known Indain artist’s painting called ‘SRK and the flowering tree’ had contributions from celebrities like playback singer Sonu Nigam and SRK’s mother-in-law Savita Chibber.
The piece was partially painted by SRK and Husain in front of an audience and then was auctioned off. The completed artwork depicted a scene from ‘Mugal-e-Azam’ and featured a man in sand-colored clothing fanning the face of his lover, Anarkali, who is reclining near a musician playing a sitar. SRK and MF Husain who had painted most of the canvas before the event completed the painting by finishing the sitar together. Though SRK only gave a few brush strokes before the artist took the brush out of his hand, much to the delight of the audience.
Talking about the experience SRK said, “I am not an artist by a long shot, but I’m here to just enjoy the evening as I hope many of you will too”. And added that he was honored to be able to share the canvas with such a renowned artist, “Whatever we do can be turned into a masterpiece, because he is the master”.
Husain said of working with SRK: “Being an artist, whether you are a painter or an actor, we are bound to add some colour, something to whatever we do. The painting is almost done, I am lucky that Shah Rukh is with me for the final touches”.
Husain and Khan both signed the piece in the upper right corner and after it dried the painting sold for 160,000 pounds during the auction at Bonham’s showroom.
We are sure that with these two masters of their craft the artwork is indeed a masterpiece!
