A self-portrait by MF Husain displayed during the exhibition at the Royal Academy on Tuesday

London, Nov. 16: Close friends of M.F. Husain, who have collected his works for many decades, held a “very private, very subtle” exhibition last night of a couple of dozen of his paintings at the Royal Academy in London.

The occasion was intended as a tribute to the artist, who died in London on June 9 this year, aged 95.

The paintings were full of colour and dash and included not only Husain’s trademark horses but also Hindu deities as well as family and witty self-portraits. Collectively they did look amazing, all present agreed.

Husain would have been amused by the choice of the Royal Academy as the venue, possibly the most prestigious in London for an artist.

A woman, whose rich husband has several Husains on display in their drawing room, quipped: “He would have laughed, ‘I had to die first before I could get here.’”

Yesterday’s exhibition, sponsored by Barclays Wealth and curated by Tanya Baxter, who runs a gallery in the King’s Road, Chelsea, was for one night only.

Among the Husain admirers present were the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and his wife Usha.

Baxter referred to Husain as “the Picasso of India”, but a distinguished British arts journalist, Godfrey Barker, compared Picasso’s output — said to be around 20,000 paintings — with the 60,000 credited to Husain.

“That makes Husain easily the most prolific artist of the 20th century,” observed Barker.

Baxter thanked Ashok Tandon, a property developer who used to live in London but has now shifted to Dubai, and businessman Yogesh Mehta, a “very dear friend” of Husain, for lending their personal paintings.

“Ash(ok) allowed me to go into his home and choose a lot of pieces,” said Baxter, who also counted Husain among her family friends.

According to Baxter, Husain’s works have been shown once before at the Royal Academy, an institution whose history goes back to 1768. It is currently housed in Burlington House on Piccadilly. It is currently showing an exhibition of ballet paintings by Degas.

The Royal Academy is also famed for its annual “Summer Exhibition” when works by internationally renowned artists hang next to entries from newcomers lucky enough to have been selected.

“This is the first tribute to M.F. Husain and it is held at the Royal Academy where he hasn’t shown since 1982 and the idea was that a few close friends of Husain would get together in the year that he died — (it’s) a private farewell,” explained Baxter. “That’s the main idea. (It’s) very private, very subtle.”

“This is a moment of reflection really on Husain passing away this year,” she added.

As for the value of Husain’s paintings, Baxter commented: “The auction houses have been pretty positive the last couple of sales. It will take a couple of years for the great works to come out because people are holding on to those works. He largely acted for himself and worked with museums rather than galleries.”

Yogesh Mehta was visibly emotional as he briefly addressed guests.

Referring to Albert Einstein’s remark about Gandhi — “generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as (Gandhi) ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth” — Mehta said: “I feel the same (way) about Husain.”

Mehta, who donated three paintings to the exhibition — a Gaja Gamini, a Ganesh and one featuring horses — said he had spent a great deal of time with Husain over the past 20 years. “I miss him a lot.”

Mehta revealed that, much as he had feared and anticipated, many fake Husains were being off-loaded on to the market.

With today’s modern digital technology it was easier to produce such copies, but “good critics can immediately tell the fakes”, said Mehta.

A London-based art expert, Anwar Siddiqui, who had also been close to Husain, had told The Telegraph when the artist died that he had wanted to do a personal piece for Mamata Banerjee because he had apparently felt “buoyed up” by her election victory. Husain also had a soft spot for Calcutta.

Since Husain did not leave a will, that mystery may not be resolved.

Today, Siddiqui was on holiday in Delhi from where he said there was no further information at the moment about whether Husain had actually executed or even started the work. “With Husain you never know.”