The first ever International Art Fair in India was held last week in New Delhi. The main focus of this event was the ‘The Indian Art Summit, 2008‘. The fair showcased around 35 galleries with 400 works of different artists. Unfortunately, one of the most popular artists of the country, M F Husain, did not get to put his work up at the fair.

The organizers of the fair say that they were not the ones responsible for the rejection of Mr. Husain’s work. Participants were given the role of selection and rejection of their competitors. The organizers claim that this summit was organized to promote Indian art, so they let the artists choose each other.

Mr. Husain’s work, ‘Bharatmata‘, which kept right wing activists provoked for the past two and a half years, was based on certain Hindu gods. This has been the reason why Husain’s exhibitions of his ‘Bharatmata’ always had protestors around them.

The Ministry of Culture had organized good infrastructure at the summit. The participants still felt that there should have been security measures taken, so as to not damage the art work at the fair, just in case, by activists. Such an incident had happened in other exhibitions of Husain’s art work.