Amrita Sher-Gil
Amrita Sher-Gil was an Indian-Hungarian artist associated with the modern art movement who lived from 1913 to 1941. Sher-Gil is recognized today as one of the most important Indian artists from the twentieth century whose legacy had a great impact on the modern art movement in India.
Born in Hungary of a Sikh father and Hungarian mother, Sher-Gil’s family moved to India when she was 8 years old. She was always artistically inclined, and when her family moved to India, she started taking formal painting lessons. At 16 years old, Sher-Gil moved to Paris and started at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts. While in Paris, Sher-Gil was influenced by the more modern art styles of artists such as Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cézanne.
Sher-Gil gained notoriety in 1932 at just 19 years old for her painting, “Young Girls”. After achieving some success in Europe, she moved back to India in 1934 to bring her art there. Amrita Sher-Gil’s love of both color and her Indian culture was a great motivator for her, and she explored those subjects in her art.
In 1936, Sher-Gil met an art collector, Karl Khandalavala. Khandalavala encouraged Sher-Gil’s interest in Indian art and introduced her to sacred Indian sites with cave paintings and carved rock, such as the sites at Ajanta and Ellora. Sher-Gil’s visits to these sites resulted in the emergence of her very own new and unique style. Her art style shifted from a kind of academic art to a more modern Indian-influenced style of her own. Her art was unique and stood in stark contrast to the contemporary Bengal school of art that represented India’s modern art movement at the time.
In 1938, Sher-Gil moved back to Hungary where she married her first cousin, Dr. Victor Egan. Although Amrita revealed that the two were not passionately in love, her relationship with Victor would allow her to continue pursuing her art with as much freedom as she had before her marriage. In 1939, they both moved to India.
In 1941, just before her long anticipated first solo show in India, Sher-Gil suddenly became very ill and died shortly thereafter at just 28 years old. To this day, it is unclear what the cause was, though some believe it was from an abortion process that resulted in peritonitis. Her mother blamed Amrita’s husband for her daughter’s sudden death. Coincidentally, the next day, the British Raj declared war on Hungary with the tensions mounting for what would be known as WWII. Her husband was arrested and interred in a camp. After the war, he remained in India for the rest of his life. Today, Sher-Gil is the most famous Indian woman artist whose art is sought after and very expensive. The Indian government has declared her work as national treasures.
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