The majority of works by Amrita Sher- Gil in
the public domain are with the NGMA, which
houses over 100 paintings by this meteoric
artist. Born of a Sikh father from an
aristocratic, land owing family, and a Hungarian
mother, Amrita Sher-Gil’s life veered between
Europe and India. She was blessed with beauty,
breeding, charismatic personality and extra
ordinary talent as a painter.
In 1929, she joined the Ecole des Beaux Arts in
Paris. Her painting skills were recognized and
acclaimed; she loved the bohemian life of
artists in Paris. Sher-Gil’s painting style at
this time reflected the European idiom with its
naturalism and textured application of paint.
Many of the paintings done in the early 1930s
are in the European style, and include a number
of self portraits. There are also many paintings
of life in Paris, nude studies, still life
studied, as well as portraits of friends and
fellow students. Of these, the self portraits
form a significant corpus. They captured the
artist in her many moods- somber, pensive and
joyous- while revealing a narcissistic streak in
her personality.
Her style underwent a radical change by the mid-
30s. she yearn for India, and by 1934, the
family returned. This time, she looked at India
with the eyes of an artist. The colours, the
textures, the vibrancy and the earthiness of the
people had a deep impact on the young artist. In
India, she appropriated the language of
miniatures.
The complexities of her life- she was of mixed
parentage and her art school background in Paris
made her both, an insider and outsider, as did
her ambivalent sexuality- promoted her to
constantly reinvent her visual language. She
sought to reconcile her modern sensibility with
her enthusiastic response to traditional
art-historical resources.
Amrita Sher-Gil
Self-portrait (7), Oil on canvas, 47.4X70.2 cm
Amrita Sher-Gil
Young Girls, Oil on canvas, 133X164 cm
Amrita Sher-Gil
Nude, Oil on canvas, 79.1X112.5 cm
Amrita Sher-Gil
Woman at Bath, Oil on canvas, 70X92 cm
Amrita Sher-Gil
Bride’s Toilet, Oil on canvas, 144.5X86 cm
Amrita Sher-Gil
Brahmacharis, Oil on canvas, 144X86.5 cm
Amrita Sher-Gil
Woman on Charpai, Oil on canvas, 85X72.4 cm
Amrita Sher-Gil
Red Verandah, Oil on canvas, 71.6X144.2 cm
|
|