"A woman participation in Indian Culture"
Introduction
Amrita Shergil (1913-1941):- Amrita Shergil did an important work of initial
guidance in turning Indian art towards modernity, hence she is given a place
among the pioneers of modern Indian art. In the art of Rabindranath, there is a
feeling of spirituality of Indian ideological life, while in the art of Amrita
Sher-Gil, there is a philosophy of selfless dedication of Indian common life.
Life and education
Amrita Shergil was born in 1913. His father was a Sikh and his mother was a
Hungarian woman. He spent the first eight years of his childhood in Europe and
in 1921 he visited India for the first time.
International mixed marriage was of immense benefit in the development of his
art. He was rightly proud of his Indianness. Because of her mother, she had
close contact with European culture and art and she was able to understand the
true meaning of modern art. Seeing Amrita's interest in painting, her mother
got her admitted to the Ecole de Bazar in Paris in 1929. From the
same five years of art studies, he gained dominance over western notation
methods. For three years in a row he won the first prize of the Ecole de Bazar.
In 1932 her paintings were displayed at the Grand Salon
and a year later she was elected its member. She was not satisfied with mere
art-school studies.
Artistic endeavor
In 1933 and 1934, Amrita studied ancient famous artifacts and
modern artifacts in the museums, art galleries and exhibitions of Paris. She
came to the conclusion that the best works of art, be it ancient or modern, are
based on the same unchangeable fundamentals. He has expressed his thoughts
related to art in the following words, "In the best art, simplification is
done by emphasizing the pictorial and creative beauty, considering only the
essential elements of the form; It does not consider the attractiveness of the
subject. There is no imitation of the external form. It is done; it is made
spiritual. He loved the conscious and meaningful spiritualization of Ajanta,
Ellora, Egypt, China, Japan, medieval, European impressionist and
post-impressionist arts. Amrita found his painting more heart-touching than
Rabindranath's poetry. He strongly criticized the artists of the 'Resurgence
Style' for blindly following the styles.
From the study of Cézanne around 1933, he began to simplify the
forms, which gave his human figures a monumental, free and sublime form. Even
after receiving initial inspiration from Sejan, Amrita felt more affinity towards
Gongwei's art. Gongwei himself preferred oriental figurative symbolist styles
to western realistic art and his synthesis was closely related to Indian art
philosophy. But more than this, the quality that impressed Amrita with the art
of Gauguin was the new natural form of ancient symbolism transformed by
Gauguin. Amrita felt that the ancient Kangra and Basauli styles can be
modernized through the specified path of pride. But only ideological guidance
was not going to lead to success; Gongwei's art cannot be given more importance
than inspiration. By the example of Gogve, she firmly believed that the
complete identity of the artist with life is essential for making a living art
and she started yearning to come to India.
A glimpse of Indianness in the arts
As soon as she came to India, Amrita made a close and intimate study of
Indian life, which was mainly a laboring rural life. In his paintings of Indian
ordinary life, 'Pahari Woman', 'Indian Mother', 'Storytelling', 'Balvadhu' are
very influential and famous. Traveling to South India, he depicted the life of
ordinary people there. His paintings of this time 'Brahmachari', 'Bride's
makeup', 'Fruit seller' are particularly famous. During her trip to South
India, Amrita saw Ajanta for the first time and was very impressed by it.
Amrita took a lot of advantage in the development of her style from the study
of Ajanta, Mughal and Basauli styles, but she strongly opposes to follow them
blindly just because she is Indian. He wrote "For at least one reason, I
am glad that I got my education in art in Europe. It gave me the opportunity to
understand and like Ajanta, Mughal and Rajput paintings...... Most of the
Indian painters pretend to understand it, but in reality it is wrongly
understood".
Last moments of life
Amrita's art not only has a sympathetic depiction of the simple, carefree
life of the Indian common people, but has guided contemporary Indian artists by
developing the basic elements of art in accordance with modern art-philosophy.
But no one in India could understand his art till his end. He died in despair
in 1941, when he was only 28 years old.
Rabindranath Tagore and Amrita Sher-Gil started with modern art methods and
gave Indian form to their art.
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