Thursday, October 25, 2012

In Green

Amrita Sher-Gil "Self-Portrait in Green"  1934
Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941) was born in India to a Sikh father and a Hungarian mother. Duality seemed to be the leitmotif of Sher-Gil's life, from her half-European half-Indian parentage, to her education and upbringing which spanned two continents, and which also informed her work which swung between European and Indian styles. She is sometimes called "India's Frida Kahlo" and although her life was considerably shorter than Kahlo's (she died at age 28) it was commensurately packed with art, glamour and notoriety. Her life has inspired several films and many books, albeit mostly in India.

I was unable to discover the current whereabouts of this painting. There is a chance it is in the Sher-Gil Collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, India, whose website states 103 as the number of this artist's works it owns, without listing them by title or date. An interesting short video from her 2008 exhibition at the Tate Modern, featuring her nephew Vivan Sundaram, can be viewed here.

2 comments: