A shooting star: Amrita Sher-Gil
On a cold winter’s day in Budapest, in the year 1913, the painter Amrita Sher-Gil made the first of the many dramatic entrances of her life.
Her father was an Indian aristocrat who frequently photographed himself costumed as a half-naked yogi. Her mother was a member of the Hungarian haute-bourgeoisie who vacillated between tiger mom and mental patient. Amrita was destined for a life less ordinary.
Her childhood was a real-life version of the Grand Budapest Hotel, a world where people slipped in and out of hotel rooms, countries and continents. In drawing rooms from Shanghai to Vienna, they conversed knowledgeably on topics ranging from Picasso to Prince Siddhartha.
When the political situation turned in Europe, Amrita's family moved to India; when her mother fell in love with an Italian artist, the family moved back to Europe; and when that affair came to an end, the family moved right back to India. Hardly a few years later, the entire family moved to Europe again, in order that Amrita, a promising artist, could enroll in the renowned l'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.
In Paris, Amrita, like so many before her, bloomed. She threw herself into the bohemian life of an artist. She seduced men and women alike. When Amrita entered a room, all eyes would turn on her. She dressed for maximum effect, desiring to appeal to the orientalist fantasies of her audience.
Over time, she came to see herself as the Parisians saw her: an exotic bird who belonged not in the grey studios of the West but in the "color and light of the East." Although she excelled in art school, she had yet to make her mark in the real world. She determined that it was time to go "home" to India. There, Amrita got the space she needed to create a new visual language that was like herself, a hybrid of East and West.
While others romanticized a golden past, Amrita pioneered the representation of a living present. Still, the muted golden hues and grace of her paintings came closest to capturing the elusive beauty of classical Indian painting.
Even as she perfected the form of her subjects, she never overlooked their humanity. In India, Amrita lived as she pleased, creating a template for the ambitious modern woman. In her personal life, she paid no mind to wagging tongues. Professionally, however, she took her reputation very seriously.
When she eventually got married, to her first cousin Victor Egan, it was on the condition that she would not bear children, who could interfere with her art. Victor acquiesced, also turning a blind eye to her extra-marital activities.
Just as she was gearing up to have her first solo exhibition, Amrita tragically met a sudden end, possibly the result of a botched abortion. She was barely twenty-eight years old.
In her brief life, she changed the course of modern art in India.