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Impressions- Room 2: Encounter with India

Encounter with India

Amrita Sher-Gil, Bride's Toilet. Oil on canvas -National Gallery of Modern Art, Neu Delhi ( Not included in the exhibition) © Copyright the artist: Amrita Sher-Gil
Amrita Sher-Gil, Bride's Toilet. Oil on canvas -National Gallery of Modern Art, Neu Delhi ( Not included in the exhibition) © Copyright the artist: Amrita Sher-Gil

 

Amrita Sher-Gil had her first exhibition in Bombay in1936 and, since then, her work has become more and more recognized and admired on the Indian subcontinent, too. Her early death in Lahore, however, brought a sudden end to a very promising talent. Not yet 29 years old, Amrita died from a quick and intense disease, whose actual cause has not been revealed to the public.

Experiencing and Recognition of the Others

During her short life, Amrita Sher-Gil tried to "conquer all at once: the alienation cause by her class, her Indo-European ancestry and her gender," according to art historian  Geeta Kapur.  This alienation, however, also enabled an encounter with India as the experiencing and recognition of the others; this distinguishes Amrita Sher-Gil from  Gauguin  and the Orientalists, for whom the Orient was primarily an archive of stereotypes and projection planes for their own suppressed desires. The Modernism of Amrita Sher-Gil was based on her completely autonomous understanding of India and her ability to bring together sources of inspiration from both the modern West and historic India.

The Foundation of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi

The decision of the Sher-Gil Family to leave an extensive portion of Amrita's estate to the Indian government became the basis for the foundation of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. In Europe Amrita Sher-Gil's works are still largely unknown.

Exhibitions to date:

  • "Six Indian Painters," Tate Britain, London,1982
  • "Indian Artists in France," Centre National des Art Plastiques, Paris, 1985;
  • "Amrita Sher-Gil: the Indian Painter and Her French and Hungarian Connections," Ernst Museum, Budapest, 2001
  • "Amrita Sher-Gil. Eine indische Künstlerfamilie im 20. Jahrhundert", Haus der Kunst, Munich 2006/2007

The photographs of  Vivan Sundaram were recently exhibited in the Sepia Gallery in New York.

Source: Haus der Kunst, Munich