Amrita Sher-Gil at the Tate Modern
The paintings of Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-41) are currently being shown at the Tate Modern (28 February – 22 April 2007; admission free). From the Tate Modern’s website:
Amrita Sher-Gil’s vibrant canvasses and her short but dynamic life have established her as one of India’s most celebrated modern artists. Born in Budapest in 1913, to a Hungarian mother [opera singer Marie Antoinette Gottesman-Baktay] and Sikh father [Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia, a Sanskrit scholar], she trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris where she became influenced by Realism. Upon returning to India, she adopted this modernist approach to portray the poor and yet colourful lives of local people, making her art a true fusion of east and west. This eye-opening display presents several of her vivid paintings, alongside revealing photomontages by her nephew, Vivan Sundaram.
Amrita Sher-Gil
A brief note on the Hungarian connection: after the family returned to Simla in 1921, Amrita’s uncle Ervin Baktay, Indologist and former student of Hungarian painter Simon Hollosy, encouraged her to pursue painting, which she studied in Paris from 1929 to 1934, before returning to India. She married her first cousin, Egan Victor, in Budapest in July 1938, but they returned to India a year later, following the introduction of the third ‘Jewish Law’, which was based on the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.
Further information on Amrita’s life and works is available on the Sikh Heritage site, and from this artist’s site.