M.F. Husain sought divorce so he could marry Maria: Kishore Singh

Did Husain tell his wife Fazila about Maria? How did Fazila deal with it? 
Apparently, Husain shared his desire to marry Maria with Fazila, and asked for a divorce, so they could marry under Catholic rites in church, and Fazila acquiesced with Husain's request. I am informed that he intended to marry Fazila once again — she was the mother of his children, after all — and as a Muslim, he could have (taken) more than one wife.

Was that what scared Maria off?
Husain was a huge publicist, but he kept the Maria chapter of his life bottled up, and there is little known about her other than that she married and migrated to Australia, where she lived.

What kind of a husband was Husain? He, presumably, fell in love with Fazila when he married her?
Husain enjoyed both power and glamour. He liked to surround himself with successful people. And, yes, he liked the company of women. His marriage to Fazila was arranged and she was a bedrock in his life. But he was attracted to several women, some of whom would become his muse.

Did Husain and Maria keep in touch post the 1950s?
Not that I or almost anyone is aware of. From 1956 to 2006, it was as though she did not exist. In 2006, when she reached out to him — and he was hardly difficult to find — it was Husain who travelled to Australia to meet her. And it was then that he made a final portrait of her that forms part of the series and is in the book.

How did you research the Maria episode in Husain's life? Did he maintain a diary or talk/speak about it later?
We all knew of his Czech affair but not the details. He shared those with confidants when the works were returned to him in Dubai. They included the late writer K Bikram Singh, and of course, Sudhir Choudhrie, who shared it with me when I was working on the book.

What effect did his Czech sojourn have on his art?
I would have to say that I have rarely seen Husain document another culture as much as he did with works in the Maria series. He seemed to enjoy the aspect of peeping into homes to see and record the way the Czech people lived. But post his return to India, that chapter seemed to have ended.

Does Stellar have the entire Maria collection? Where are the six portraits that he is said to have painted of her?
Husain was not the most organised, and in any case would hardly have known the accurate number of works he gifted Maria. He does share that he made several portraits of her, and presumably she kept all or some of these. I find it hard to believe that if she returned the portraits, he would not include them in the collection, since he seemed keen to have the series stay together. This is at odds with his other series; the Mughal-e-Azam, for instance, is part of the Stellar Foundation but a chunk of it is still part of another collection, or even Our Planet Called Earth (OPCE) of which 17 works are with Stellar but there are other works in individual hands. We never learned how many OPCE works Husain eventually made, or even if some attributions to the series are genuine or not.

Has the Maria collection been shown before? Will it be shown to the public?
Husain aired the collection briefly when it was returned to him in Dubai, before he had it shipped to London. It was shown in its entirety at St Moritz Art Masters last year, where the book's international release was first held.