This Is Why Late Artist Amrita Sher Gil Was Known As India's Frida Kahlo!

She was young and super talented but we lost her when she is just 28 due to unknown reasons. Late artist Amrita Sher Gil was about to attend her first solo show in Lahore but went into a coma and left her legacy behind which went onto becoming world famous! Born in 1913 in Budapest, Hungary, her paintings are known worldwide. Often called India's Frida Kahlo for aesthetically blending traditional and Western art forms, Amrita was one of the most famous painters of India.

Her artwork may have mostly depicted Western style and culture during the initial stages of her career, but she gradually rediscovered herself by depicting Indian subjects using traditional methods. She even travelled to different parts of India, France and Turkey, which inspired her techniques. 

Early Life

In 1926, Amrita’s nephew Ervin Baktay visited Shimla which played a crucial role taking to painting on a serious note. Baktay was probably her first critic and encouraged her to do better. She started by painting her servants and maids. When she was 16, her mother took her to Paris, the hub of modern art. During her stay in Paris, she was influenced by European painters like Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin. There, she often used her friends as her subjects and made several self-portraits. This is the time when her famous painting 'Young Girls' came about. 

Amrita's Time In India

She returned in 1934 and began decoding the traditions of Indian art. She was influenced by the Mughal and the Ajanta paintings. In 1937, when she visited southern parts of India, she was deeply moved by the plight of many villagers and unprivileged people. You can see that impression and influence in her paintings which include  ‘Brahmacharis’, ‘Bride's Toilet’ and ‘South Indian Villagers Going to Market’. 

Her painting style and techniques were different from what she drew in Paris. She even wrote to one of her friends, saying that Europe belonged to the likes of Picasso and Matisse while India belongs to her. 

Works In India

 

 

 

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There are other female artists besides Frida Kahlo pt. XXV : Amrita Sher Gil #knowyourfemaleartists via @apapermask #amritashergil #womeninart

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Her works in India, which were after her wedding, Amrita's paintings had a tremendous impact on Indian art. Many of her works were influenced by the works of Rabindranath Tagore and Abanindranath Tagore. Some of the best works of her time include ‘Siesta’, ‘Village Scene’ and ‘In the Ladies' Enclosure’, which represented the poor state of the unprivileged and women in the country. In 1941, she moved to Lahore (before independence), where art was being appreciated at that time. There she came up with ‘The Bride’, ‘Tahitian’, ‘Red Brick House’ and ‘Hill Scene’.

Achievements

 

 

 

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"Young Girls" by Amrita Sher-Gil, 1932. Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. . . Sher-Gil (1913 - 1941) was an Indian-Hungarian painter not much known during her life but has come to be regarded as a pioneer of Indian modernist art and one of the most significant female Indian painters of the 20th century. The daughter of a Sikh aristocrat and a Hungarian-Jewish opera singer, her artistic talents were nurtured and she moved to Paris in 1930 to study art. This painting, completed in 1932, brought her wide acclaim, and was awarded a gold medal at the Grand Salon; she was then elected as an Associate of the Salon, becoming not only its youngest member but the only Asian person to hold the title. It pictures her sister Indira on the left and a French friend on the right, and as the notes from a 2007 Tate exhibition of Sher-Gil's work explain, "the two women, one poised and assured, the other more awkward with her face buried beneath streaming hair, have been as embodying different sides of the artist herself;" the women also embody the ethnic and cultural identities Sher-Gil herself bridged. There is also a sense of intimacy and underlying sexual charge due to the exposed breast of the woman on the right. Indeed, Sher-Gil had many affairs with women as well as men; she later married her first cousin, perhaps as a means to escape continued dependence on her parents. In 1934 she returned to India with her husband and settled in Lahore, but in 1941, at just 28 years of age, she fell ill and slipped into a coma from which she never recovered. The reason for her death was never confirmed and the events were mysterious, with her mother even accusing her husband of murdering her. Despite her short life, Sher-Gil left behind a substantial body of work, many which are now held by the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. . . . #amritashergil #portrait #selfportrait #queerportraiture #queermodernism #queermodernisms #herstory #lgbthistory #queerculture #arthistory #modernism #modernist #modernart #queerart #queerartist #bisexualartist #lesbianart #lesbianartist #womanartist #femaleartist #indianart #indianartist #feministarthistory

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Amrita was the youngest as well as the only Asian artist to be elected as an Associate of the Grand Salon in Paris. For her work ‘Young Girls’, she was awarded a gold medal in Paris, which was considered as a prestigious award there. The works of Amrita Sher-Gil have been declared as National Art Treasures by the Government of India. While she was alive, most of her paintings were unsold but they fetched an impressive amount of money later on, something even Pablo Picasso experienced! This made her one of the priciest Indian women painters of all-time. In 2006, her ‘Village Scene’ sold for 6.9 crore rupees in New Delhi. At that time it was the highest amount paid for any Indian painting in India.

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Current Times

At the Sotheby's inaugural auction in Mumbai, which was called 'Boundless: India',  while Tyeb Mehta's 'Durga Mahisasura Mardini' sold for Rs 20.49 crore, Amrita Sher-Gil's The Little Girl in Blue sold for Rs 18.69 crore, shooting past its estimate of Rs 8.5 to Rs 12.5 crore, creating a record price for the artist in India. A quick fact: This work of her's was selected by the artist for her first solo show in 1937 in Lahore.