Amrita Sher-Gil: Indian-Hungarian Painter and Pioneer of Modern Art in India
Image Courtesy: Google Doodle
Amrita Sher-Gil (30 January 1913 – 5 December 1941) a Hungarian-Indian painter. She has been called “one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century” and a pioneer in modern Indian art. Drawn to painting from an early age, Sher-Gil started formal lessons at the age of eight. She first gained recognition at the age of 19, for her oil painting Young Girls (1932) (shown below). Sher-Gil depicted everyday life of the people in her paintings..
Life and Career
Amrita Sher-Gil was born on 30 January 1913 in Hungary. Her father Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia, an Indian Punjabi Sikh aristocrat from the Majithia family and a scholar in Sanskrit and Persian, and Marie Antoinette Gottesmann, a Hungarian-Jewish opera singer who came from an affluent bourgeois family.
She is considered one of the most important Indian artists of the 20th century. Sher-Gil’s works combined Indian and European styles, and her paintings often portrayed Indian women and their daily life. She started her career as a painter in Paris and later moved to India, where she continued to paint and exhibit her works. Sher-Gil died at the young age of 28 but left behind a significant body of work that has been widely acclaimed and continues to influence Indian art.
Award and Legacy
Amrita Sher-Gil received numerous awards and recognition for her works during her lifetime, including:
- The Grand Prize for her paintings at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1937.
- The All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Award in 1938.
Her legacy includes:
- Being regarded as one of the pioneers of modern Indian art.
- Inspiring generations of artists and art students in India.
- Her works fetching high prices at auction, making her one of the most expensive women artists in the world.
- Her paintings being part of the permanent collections of several major art museums, including the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Sher-Gil’s life and works continue to be widely studied and appreciated, and she is remembered as a trailblazer who brought new ideas and techniques to Indian art and helped to shape the country’s cultural identity. On 30 January 2016, Google Doodle celebrated Amrita Sher-Gil’s 103rd Birthday.
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