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"It's tempting to compare the late Indian painter M. F. Husain's personal history with the modern history of his homeland. After all, Husain first came to international attention in 1947, the year of India's independence, when he helped found the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, a collective that sought to break with traditional ideals of art and culture. If India was to have a new identity, then Husain would be an ambassador for its bold avant-garde. Decades later, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has opened an intimate exhibition of Husain's final few works, \"Indian Civilization,\" a set of paintings in which India's political past and religious imagery and Husain's vision of the country's contemporary culture all collide.\n\nPinterestFacebook*Three Dynasties,* 2008\u201311.\n\nEarly in his career, Husain embraced the controversial artistic movements he saw coming out of Europe, producing images of India that borrowed heavily from Cubism and Surrealism. Similarly, the series at the V&amp;amp;A comprises eight wall-spanning triptychs, each depicting some aspect of Indian life (e.g., the domestic day-to-day, religious festivals). But while the paintings' bright colors recall the brilliant hues of the country's traditional decorative arts, the figures who inhabit Husain's works are slightly skewed and decidedly modern. The deity Ganesha, families relaxing at home, and dancers at a festival all look as abstract as any of Picasso's subjects. In Husain's Three Dynasties, which portrays centuries of political and colonial turmoil, Queen Victoria and British military officers become faceless, cartoonlike illustrations. An exciting look at Husain's final project\u2014he was still completing the triptychs when he died in 2011\u2014the V&amp;amp;A's retrospective presents a deeply personal portrait of an artist who spent his career seeking the intersection of art, politics, and history.\n\nThrough July 27 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; vam.ac.uk\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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